Star Trek: Enterprise - The Last Jedi
by allen.bair
Summary: Travis Mayweather has been charged by Yoda to track down a newly emerged Sith Lord and end him in order to prevent the newly forming Coalition of Planets and the Milky Way Galaxy from suffering the same destruction and suffering as Yoda's own Galactic Republic. The sequel to Star Trek: Enterprise - The Ancient Force. A Crossover of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Stargate.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Captain's Log: July 4th, 2159

 _Lieutenant Mayweather and Jedi Master Yoda have returned through the stargate early this morning at approximately zero four hundred hours ship's time with a disturbing report on a mission authorized by myself to investigate what used to be the United States Air Force Stargate Command facility on Earth. They brought with them a survivor, Ensign Gallardo, of what I am told was a massacre of at least twenty if not thirty Starfleet personnel by their commanding officer. The evidence they observed suggests that, for reasons unknown, he rigged phase cannons around the facility and then used them to eliminate the technicians assigned to it. The evidence also suggests that he then used the stargate to escape before Lieutenant Mayweather and Master Yoda arrived. Travis brought back as many clues as he could find in the form of computer data on what the base C.O. was up to and where he might possibly have gone._

 _What is more disturbing is the evidence observed by Yoda that somehow the missing C.O. has gained knowledge of and control over the dark side of the Force. The Force itself is a mystical energy field whose power I have personally witnessed drag a starship out of orbit and crash it into a planet's surface just by thinking about it. The dark side is when the Force user is driven by negative emotions such as fear, anger, and hatred, and I am told this twists the user's mind dangerously. I am also told that if all of this is true, then Earth and possibly the entire galaxy is in great danger. I have been given no reason as of yet to dispute this conclusion._

 _Master Yoda himself collapsed upon his return through the stargate this morning, and has been returned to sickbay where Dr. Phlox is examining him. I am awaiting news about his condition._

 _The antimatter production unit which Commanders Tucker and T'pol, and Dr. McKay have engineered appears to be online and is producing a trickle of antideuterium. Hopefully, within a day we'll have enough to at least make it back to Earth where we can replenish our supply._

The morning shift on the bridge was tense as Archer left his ready room to assume his position. He crossed the short distance from his office and sat down in the captain's chair, relieving the officer who had been keeping it warm. A tablet with the data which Travis had brought back was still in his right hand, a mug of steaming coffee in his left.

His own mind was filled with more questions upon the report that his helmsman had brought back. He had not as of yet rescinded the lieutenant's leave of absence, and as far as he knew, his helmsman had been in sickbay for the rest of the morning after he had checked in with his captain.

He took a sip of his coffee.

"Captain? This is weird. I think you need hear this" Hoshi said, her tone of voice concerned, within seconds of Archer's settling in to his chair.

 _Isn't that part of our job description now?_ The Captain thought to himself but didn't say. Instead, Archer spun to his left to face his communications officer, "yes, Hoshi?"

His communications officer couldn't have been at her own station for more than five or ten minutes. She was scheduled to start her shift at the same time he was, Archer knew, but it was her first time back at her seat since the away mission yesterday.

"There's a transmission being broadcast on subspace frequencies coming from the planet." She told him, worry growing in her voice. "Sir, it's traveling out in all directions."

"A transmission? Let's hear it?" Her Captain asked, knowing that there was no one left alive down on the planet to transmit anything.

She put the strange transmission on the bridge's open speakers. It was the recording of a baritone voice repeating a single sentence over and over again in a harsh, gutteral language which Archer had heard far too many times for his liking recently.

Hoshi confirmed for him what he already knew. "It's in Klingon, sir." She said.

"What's it say?" He asked, his voice taking on an almost resigned tone, his own face took on an expression matching his tone of voice. He was just about done with Klingons.

She listened to it again, and then said, "It's the same message over and over again, sir, 'Earthlings commit sacrilege on Debma'."

"What?" Archer's eyebrows raised in alarm and he asked. "When did we…?" He started to ask, and then realized it wouldn't matter. There was no one he could argue the point with that would matter. Once the Klingons heard this, they would shoot and forget the questioning part. "Never mind. Where's it coming from?"

"Sir, it's coming from the ruins. The frequency the message is being broadcast on is the one most used by Klingon vessels as far as we've encountered." Hoshi told him.

Archer's mind kicked into overdrive as the implications of what the Klingon response to such a message might be. He briefly considered firing on the coordinates of the transmission source, then discarded it. _If something hadn't been desecrated before, we would do a proper job of it then, wouldn't we?_ _As if we didn't have enough to worry about._ He thought to himself.

He made up his mind and hit the button on his chair for the intra-ship communicator.

"Archer to Major Samuels." He called for the C.O. of the M.A.C.O.s stationed aboard his ship.

"Samuels here, sir." Came the soldier's reply.

"We have a problem. Get a team suited up and ready to transport down to the surface in ten minutes." Archer told him. "I'll brief you at the transporter."

"Very good, sir. Ten minutes." Came Samuels' crisp reply.

Archer closed the communicator, and got up from his chair, tablet left to the side, but coffee mug still in hand. He somehow knew he would need more before this morning was over.

Yoda was dying.

Travis could feel it as he sat by the unconscious, legendary figure's bedside in _Enterprise's_ sickbay, and he didn't need the Force to do so. Dr. Phlox's diagnostic equipment didn't add any new information that the helmsman couldn't see with his own eyes or hear with his own ears.

The graphical readouts on the computer monitors above and nearby Yoda's head told Travis that his teacher's internal organs were just shutting down. Not from any particular illness or injury, but just because that's what organs do when they reach the extreme old age of nine hundred years old. Dr. Phlox had warned all of _Enterprise's_ senior officers of Yoda's physical frailty, even as the Jedi master's own physical activity over the past week seemed to be calling all of sickbay's diagnostic equipment liars. But now, it was as if they were silently saying, "See?! We told you!"

Strangely, Travis felt okay with it. It wasn't like when he had lost anyone close to him before, and Travis _had_ grown close to Yoda in the short time he had known him. They had shared a connection through the Force as master and apprentice that he had rarely if ever experienced with anyone before.

Travis contemplated the appearance of his sleeping teacher. There was a peace about the small green alien that told Travis his Jedi master and recent friend was going to be fine if not in this life, then in the next.

Standing nearby at a respectful distance, keeping his attention on his monitors, Dr. Phlox remained mournfully silent. Travis knew it could be hard for any doctor to lose a patient. The good Denobulan doctor broke the news to Travis not long after he had returned Yoda to sickbay from being transported up.

"I am sorry, Lieutenant, but there's nothing I can do." He had said with noticeably sincere sorrow in a grave voice. "Even the best medicine can't fight old age, especially aging of this kind."

"That's okay, doc." Travis had told him. He didn't exactly know why, but the Force flowing through him was moving him to just accept it as what was natural. Like it _should_ happen. "I'll stay with him until the time comes."

"Of course. If you need anything..." The doctor began to say, making the same offer he always did to a friend or loved one when a death was involved.

"We'll be alright. Thanks anyway, doc." Travis had told him, and then he went to sit by Yoda's bedside.

He had been there for, what? Two hours? Three? Truth was, he wasn't really sure.

"You know, Master Yoda," He began to say to him. He wasn't really sure if he could hear or would ever know what Travis said at that point, but he needed to say it while he still could. "I never said thank you for what you did. You know, for training me and giving me back… well, giving me back that part of myself I had lost. You kind of helped me find it, and now things make sense again, and I feel complete. So, thank you."

Yoda coughed a little, and his eyes opened to slits.

"Master?" Travis asked.

"Up my time is." Yoda said weakly. His voice sounded strained.

"You don't need to speak, Master Yoda." Travis told him.

"The last of the Jedi you are, Travis Mayweather. Stay that way it must. Over the time of the Jedi is. Depends on it your galaxy, your future does." Yoda told him, and then he added gravely, "Stop the Sith Lord you must, or many, many more die will they."

Travis remembered Yoda's words from the Cheyenne mountain complex. He nodded his head. "Yes, master. I will see to it."

"The way of the Jedi this is. Return to the Force I do now." Yoda said. "Mourn for me do not. Luminous beings are we, not this crude and decaying matter. Always in the Force will I be with you."

"Of course, master." Travis told him, feeling the truth of his words as the Jedi Master's voice trailed off, and his opened eyes went blank.

His own eyes beginning to water, Travis took two fingers and closed his teacher's large, green, open eyes, and it appeared that Yoda was finally asleep for the last time.

Dr. Phlox respectfully walked over and stood behind the helmsman, putting one hand on his shoulder in a caring gesture.

"I'm sorry, Lieu..." Dr. Phlox began to say, but then was cut short in surprise, his mouth left open.

The Jedi master's tiny, pale green corpse began to glow with energy, and then his simple monk's robes were suddenly empty of their burden and collapsed where they lay on the sickbay bed. To the doctor's utter amazement, what looked like a knot of ribbons made of pure light and energy began to rise from where the empty clothing now lay.

The energy knot hovered briefly, and Phlox watched with what? Wonder? Anxiety? Reverence maybe? He didn't really know his own feelings at that moment. It was awe inspiring and beautiful to look at. Phlox had been a student of many religious faiths in his life, trying to see the good and the beauty in all of them. Almost all of them had spoken of the soul, many had spoken of an afterlife and of beings of light. Was this what he was now seeing for the first time with his own eyes?

Travis nodded at the ribbons of energy and smiled, a single tear falling down his cheek. And then, seemingly having finished everything it intended, it gently rose up and passed through the sickbay ceiling.

The doctor's eyes had followed almost with a will of their own, and then as he found himself and the helmsman alone again in the sickbay, he said, his voice quiet and contemplative, "I'll need to report this to the Captain."

"It's okay, doc." Travis said to him, wiping his cheek with the palm of his hand. "Master Yoda's just returned."

"Returned? Returned where?" Phlox asked.

"To the Force." Travis responded.

The energy being rose higher and higher through the bulkheads of the ship. Much of the knowledge which he had lost in assuming corporeal form returned to him like a flood as his connection to the Cosmic Force met no more of the resistance brought by being confined to the crude matter. The midichlorians had served their purpose well, but he had need of them no longer.

"Done, it is." Yoda said to himself as his non-corporeal form flew from the vessel that remained in orbit around the desert world.

"Indeed." The impression of a female voice hit him.

"Uria. A long time it has been since sensed you I have." Yoda responded calmly.

"Indeed it has, Ancient One." She responded with respect. Yoda sensed that if they had been corporeal, she might have bowed in respect to him. "I trust that you have accomplished what you intended?"

It was to her credit, that Yoda sensed no sarcasm or irony from her, though possibly some discomfort. She was younger, much much younger, than he. She had ascended long after the Jedi had evolved into something other than what they had been, during the time of the Alteran migrations. She had since taken it upon herself to be the mouthpiece of the Others.

"Yes. No more interference from me there will be." Yoda told her.

"I see." She responded, and he could sense her sense of respect coming into conflict with her next line of questioning.

"What you want to say, say Uria." Yoda told her.

"The Others and I are _uncertain_ as to how to respond to your…" She felt as if she were searching for the right, inoffensive word.

Yoda repressed the desire to chuckle at her discomfort. "My what?" He asked.

"Ancient One, the rule of non-interference in corporeal matters was one you championed for eons. To my understanding it was a guiding principle that you first proposed and enforced. We don't understand why you have now decided to ignore it. Corporeal beings must be free to make their own decisions." Uria explained.

"Agree with you strongly I do. Interference from us they do not need." Yoda told her.

"So why then…?" Uria asked, confused.

"Interfere with their development already we did. Correcting the mistakes we left behind I was. Our battles, our wars, need to fight again they do not. Jedi and Sith. Alteran and Ori. Destroyed much, took many lives they did without meaning to. A chance this galaxy now has without them. In danger that future for them is." Yoda told her, though she and the Others should have already known his reasoning the second he took corporeal form and woke up from stasis.

"So you believed and told the human pilot." Uria replied, though he sensed some disturbance from her.

"Believe my answer you do not?" Yoda asked.

"I suppose that depends." She responded.

It might have been amusing to Yoda if she didn't feel so serious. "On what?" He asked.

"On your actions from here on. The Others have forbidden Daniel Jackson from interfering any further in this matter. They seek to forbid you as well." Now she felt almost apologetic to Yoda, as if she didn't want to tell him this.

"Need to be concerned they do not. Faith in my last padawan I have. End this he will. For more action from me there is no need." Yoda told her. Of course, he also felt no need to add that they both knew the Others couldn't stop him if they tried, even combined.

Some relief he felt come from her, but still the disturbance of uncertainty remained. "That is good to hear, Ancient One." She told him. Then she asked, "To where do you travel now?"

"To where I wish." Yoda replied to her politely but firmly. This interrogation of his intentions and actions was over.

She received his meaning. "Of course, Ancient One." And then she was gone, leaving Yoda to contemplate the meaning of the encounter.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Do these symbols mean anything to you?" Archer pushed a tablet computer across his desk, its lit display outlining seven symbols which looked vaguely like Klingon writing he had seen several years before on their homeworld.

Across from himself sat Colonel Ronan Shepherd, the leader of the expeditionary team which they had rescued from the planet below them, and the closest thing he had handy to an expert on these symbols and the device on which they were normally found. A fresh cup of coffee had been offered and accepted by the colonel and now sat steaming at his own right hand on the desk.

The team he had sent to deal with the offending subspace beacon had reported it destroyed as ordered. His problem now was that, according to T'Pol's logic (and it was usually sound), it had been broadcasting since yesterday before the Klingon had taken his own life. There was almost no chance someone unfriendly hadn't heard it.

Archer had also learned of the Jedi Master's… Did he call it a death? From what Dr. Phlox had described, he wasn't sure if that was even an accurate term. Perhaps "passing" was better suited in this instance. The profound implications of the event would ring through his own mind for a long time to come, and he hadn't even been there to see it.

At any rate, he had learned of Yoda's passing an hour and a half before, and the repeated warning he had given to Archer's helmsman. Finding the renegade S.I. agent and newly empowered Sith Lord had now become their top priority.

Under normal circumstances, he would have sent a message about the bad guy needing to be caught via subspace back to Starfleet Command. Except these weren't normal circumstances. The bad guy in question was one of Starfleet's own, and from what he had learned through Travis, he was the head of S.I.'s black ops section that wasn't even supposed to exist. Archer didn't even have a name to report. His tactical officer, Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Reed, who had previously worked for the dark S.I. unit didn't even know who this new intelligence handler was. His last contact, Agent Harris, had dropped off the radar for good several years ago. After that, all contact with Section Thirty One had ceased.

Further, the operation and facility that the man had overseen would be so classified that he doubted anyone at Command would know what he was talking about, and those that did would deny everything. Barring that, they would tell him to walk away.

He couldn't do that. Not this time. Not after nineteen good men and women had been brutally betrayed and murdered by the officer responsible for them. That demanded a response. This monster would be brought to justice one way or the other. Command be damned.

That meant _Enterprise_ was on their own in tracking him down as far as Command would be concerned.

Hoping his own expertise in astronomy would be useful, he himself had been studying the seven symbols for the last hour before he had asked for the Atlantis soldier's help. He had the symbols displayed on a tablet computer. Having been recently told that they represented star constellations as seen from Earth, he had been trying to use it to cross reference any star constellations which might match them to give him some idea of where it might be. So far though he had hit a wall.

About the only good news he had received that afternoon was that Trip, T'Pol, and Dr. McKay had managed to cobble together enough antimatter for the week and a half long warp trip back to Earth from their jury-rigged production unit. It wasn't much, but it meant they were no longer stranded in orbit around the sterile desert world that had proved to be more curse than blessing. That was still something.

Colonel Shepherd took the symbols and studied them for a minute. "No." He shook his head. "I mean, they're obviously a gate address for the Milky Way stargate system, but if you're asking if I know exactly what planet they lead to, then no. I doubt McKay would either."

Archer tried again. The symbols had to be able to be read in some reasonable way, didn't they? "Can you at least tell how far this planet might be from Earth?"

"I haven't even memorized all the addresses in Pegasus that we use on a regular basis, Captain." Shepherd responded. "My team and I are the first ones from Atlantis in over a hundred years that have even set foot in the Milky Way. There were thousands of stargates seeded throughout this galaxy."

Shepherd placed the tablet back on the desk and slid it back towards the captain.

Archer let out a sigh of frustration, rubbing his face in his hands and leaning back in his chair. "Well, thanks for looking anyway." He said, then took another sip of his coffee.

"Tough day?" Shepherd asked.

"You don't know the half of it." Archer replied.

Feeling some empathy for a fellow command officer, Shepherd then picked up the tablet again and said while looking at it, "I assume your helmsman got this from the old S.G.C. on that mission you said only he and his little alien buddy could handle." He studied it again. "Why's this address so important?" He asked.

Archer briefly debated as to how much to share, and then caught himself. _No, stop it. This is too important now_ _and you can't go to anyone else for help_ _._ Out loud he replied, "I need to find out where this 'address' leads to. The man Lieutenant Mayweather and his, uh... 'teacher' were tracking down escaped to this address. From the report he gave me, if this man continues loose, Earth and possibly the whole galaxy may be at risk. It is vitally important that we find him and stop him."

Ronan suddenly felt like he knew the Captain much, much better. He could immediate respect the man's position. It was one he had been in more often than he cared to think about in his position as Atlantis's chief military commander.

He thought for a minute, then said, " _I_ can't tell you anything about this one except that it's somewhere in the Milky Way. Anything farther would have at least one extra symbol before the point of origin symbol. That's the last one in the address. _But_ ," He emphasized the word "but", "back on Atlantis, if we can't use a stargate for some reason and need to get there by ship through hyperspace, we could use the gate coordinates and Atlantis's database to locate exactly where in Pegasus a gate might be located."

"Atlantis's database." Archer repeated, trying to follow his reasoning. "How does that help us here?"

"Just sitting here, it doesn't." Shepherd responded. "And the truth is it may not help us there either. He could have gated to this address and then turned around and gated to a completely different world to throw us off. Even if we went back to Atlantis and looked it up, this could be an ice world on the other side of the galaxy that you'd only last long enough to dial the gate and walk back through. There's no guarantee that this was his goal."

Archer saw his logic, though to be truthful the tactic hadn't occurred to him. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of traveling between planets being as easy as walking from one room to the next, much less planets two galaxies apart. _And I thought_ hyperspace _technology might obsolete warp drive._

"It's still all we've got to go on." He finally said. "And I may be underestimating this man, but from my understanding he's just as new to this technology as we are. That tactic may not have occurred to him."

Shepherd considered this and nodded. "Okay." He said.

"Will you help us?" Archer asked.

"I'll need to contact Atlantis Command." Shepherd replied. "It may be as simple as sending the data through the gate, them looking it up and replying. It may just amount to a five minute call. But in any event, I'll need to get back to the gate below us and make the call." He then paused a minute, and added, "Is your helmsman's teacher up for another trip back to the surface to unlock the gate?" He replied. "He looked a little worn out the last time I saw him."

Archer's face took on a frustrated, and then saddened expression as he admitted, "Yoda passed away an hour and a half ago in sickbay."

"Well, that complicates things significantly." Shepherd said, not unkindly, but in a practical way. "Wasn't he the only one that could get the gate to spin?"

"Maybe not." Archer replied. "He instructed Travis pretty well in his 'discipline'." He figured that was as good of a word as any for it just then. "From what I've seen the lieutenant's capable of, I don't think it'll be too challenging for him."

The twin suns had risen to full noon, and it felt hotter than ever on the planet's surface in front of the stargate as Travis, Shepherd, and the two other soldiers who had been a part of Shepherd's team were drenched in their own sweat. They had transported down to the planet only minutes before, but it already felt like they had materialized in an oven. This would have to be as quick as possible, and Colonel Shepherd was sincerely hoping it would live up to the five or ten minutes he had told Archer.

They had reconnected the zero point module to the stargate as quickly as they could, and Travis stood at a safe distance as he concentrated through the Force on finding the simple lock Yoda had described. Shepherd stood at the dialing pedestal, waiting for Travis's signal to begin entering the address for the stargate on Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy. The other two men stood scanning the surrounding area for the signs of any possible threat.

Travis had one hand outstretched towards the gate, feeling the mechanisms within the great ring as he probed its inner workings. The truth was, he wished he had been given a little more time after his master's passing before being thrown back into the mission.

 _But this is what we do_. He told himself. _This is what Master Yoda would want me to do instead of being holed up in my quarters grieving._

There. He found it. Yoda was right. It _was_ simple and he was able to deactivate it with ease.

"Okay, I've got it." He said loudly for Shepherd to hear.

Shepherd went into motion pressing the large buttons around the pedestal which corresponded to the appropriate symbols on the gate. Within seconds, the seven red chevrons around the gate had lit up, and there came the whoosh outwards and towards them of the familiar vortex which so resembled a rush of water, and then just as immediately it collapsed back into the hole within the great ring, forming the "puddle" of energy which was their connection to Atlantis on the other end.

When the wormhole was active, Travis stepped back and released the lock. The gate no longer needed to be able to spin freely. He then stood by Colonel Shepherd as he attempted to radio his people.

"Colonel Shepherd to Atlantis Command come in, please." He spoke into his communicator device.

Silence.

Shepherd repeated his call.

Several seconds later, there came a business-like female voice through his communicator device, "Atlantis Command, go ahead Colonel. What's your status? Have you reached Earth?"

"Negative, Command. Things here have become a lot more complicated. I'm transmitting a set of gate coordinates for the Milky Way stargate system. I need to know if there's anything in the database about the planet that stargate is located on." Shepherd responded.

He took out another tablet computer, not one from _Enterprise_ , but one which Dr. McKay had brought among her own equipment, and began pressing his fingers over the screen to send the address through the wormhole to be received by Atlantis's own computers on the other side.

"Data received, Colonel. We're looking them up now." Came the woman's voice. "In what way have things become complicated?"

"The old Stargate Command Facility under Cheyenne Mountain has been compromised by a rogue element to the current authorities." Shepherd responded.

There was a pause. Then, "I see." Said the female voice. "And the address you need information on?"

"I'm trying to help resolve it. Like I said, it's complicated. You got anything yet? The sooner I can close this connection and get back to the ship that rescued us, the better we're going to be. The current surface temperature is almost a hundred and forty five Fahrenheit." He told her.

"Understood." She replied.

Beneath their feet, the ground trembled slightly.

"What was that?" Shepherd asked. "An earthquake?"

The ground trembled again. Then it died down again, but they could still feel some vibrations through their boots.

Travis pulled out a scanner device from one of his jumpsuit's pockets. "I'm not picking up any seismic activity on the hand scanner." Though passively through the Force, he felt something. Something dangerous.

Travis pulled out his communicator. "Mayweather to _Enterprise_." He spoke into it.

" _Enterprise_ here, go ahead Travis." Came his captain's voice in reply.

"We're feeling some kind of tremors down here, but my scanner's not picking anything up. You got anything on sensors?" Travis asked.

There was a pause, and then his captain's voice came back, "Sensors don't indicate anything out of the ordinary. What's the tremor like?"

"It's just a little bit of rumbling, and now there's this constant vibration like something's moving. And honestly, I'm not feeling like this is a good spot to be in right now." Travis told him.

"Is this one of your special feelings?" The captain asked in all seriousness.

"Yeah." Travis responded.

"Has the colonel gotten any info yet on the address?" Archer asked, concerned.

"Not yet, it sounds like they're still looking it up." He told him.

There was another pause. "We need that information, Travis. Stay alert, contact us for transport the second you've got what we need."

"Aye, sir. Mayweather out." Travis responded.

He replaced the communicator in it's pocket, and then his other hand rolled around to the side pocket on his thigh where his new cylindrical weapon was kept. He unzipped it, and brought the twenty or so centimeter object out where it rested comfortably in his hand.

His eyes closed he reached out through the Force, trying to understand what it was telling him.

Travis's eyes snapped open a second later. "We've got to go! Now!"

"What!" Shepherd responded in confusion. "Why?! We don't have the data on the address we need!"

But they didn't have the time to wait. Travis was convinced of it. Acting purely on instinct, he focused and brought the two soldiers standing guard together and with the force, threw them through the stargate's open wormhole.

"What are you doing?!" Shepherd yelled at him.

"No time to explain! Just get through the stargate!" Travis said as he ran at the ring.

Just then in the open sand not ten meters from the gate, the sand exploded upwards as a monstrous, scaled form rose up from the surface and lunged at the rocky platform.

"Right!" Shepherd yelled and leaped through the puddle.

Travis was only a meter behind him, and then he too disappeared through the energy vortex.

Seconds later the huge, armor scaled creature smashed down on the platform where they had been standing only seconds prior. It's enormous body swung against the upright metal ring and sent it into the sand just beyond with such force that it buried itself. Moments later, the beast finished its work and followed it, digging itself back into the bowels of the desert, dragging the stargate with it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Suddenly, Hoshi's constant telemetry from Travis's communicator went dead. Her fingers flew over her console to re-establish contact with the _Enterprise_ lieutenant, but it was no good. It was like he wasn't there at all. Neither were the transponders given to the members of the Atlantis team.

"Captain, I've lost contact with the away team's signal!" Hoshi alerted the rest of the bridge crew, though directing it to her captain.

Archer already having been on his feet and pacing the bridge, snapped around to face her communications station.

"What?! How?" He exclaimed.

"I don't know sir, but the signal from Travis's communicator is just gone. The transponders from the Atlantis team members has gone dead too. I can't raise them again. It's like they've just been erased." Hoshi told him, her voice stressed.

"T'Pol?!" Archer turned to his science officer. "What about their bio signs? Are they still down there?"

T'Pol already had her eyes rooted in the sensor scanner's head display. As cool and dispassionate as she usually was, after years of working with her and knowing her, Archer could tell from her body language that there was an urgency and tension there as well. After a minute and a half, she looked up and shook her head.

"I'm not reading any bio signatures coming from the stargate site, Captain." T'Pol reported.

Archer's mind raced and then, "Can we get an orbital view of the site up on the forward view screen?" They had used the sensors this way before, effectively using the ship like a satellite taking pictures from orbit.

T'Pol's fingers flew over the controls at her own station and the image of stars on the forward viewscreen was replaced with a top down, real color, real time picture of the ruins and the stargate site next to them.

Even from the distance it was at, they could all tell something was wrong.

"Zoom in to the gate platform." Archer ordered.

The image on the screen grew larger, but just as detailed as it came in close to the bedrock outcrop where the stargate and it's dialing device were set up.

 _No bodies. That's a good sign, at least._ Archer thought to himself. Then his attention went to where the stargate stood, or at least where it had stood.

"Where is it?" Archer asked. "The stargate, where's the stargate?"

About five or ten meters from the empty nook where the stargate had once stood there lay the smashed remains of something that looked vaguely familiar.

"Zoom in on whatever that is down there." Archer told her, pointing to the debris.

The view focused in again and Archer could see the details of what looked like a red crystal, and panels which held similar symbols to the ones he had seen on the stargate. They lay broken and scattered like someone had taken a sledgehammer to them.

"I believe that object is, or was the stargate's dialing device, Captain." T'Pol reported, her voice attempting to maintain a veneer of dispassion. But Archer could hear the tremor in it. After all these years, he knew her too well.

"What the hell happened down there?" Archer asked out loud.

When no one had any answers for him, he ordered, "I want to know. Find out."

Travis landed hard on his side from the leap he took. He felt nauseous, and had a brief, vague memory of stars and something like a tunnel. He had a bitter taste in his mouth as he shook his head to clear it. His right hand still held the hilt of his lightsaber. He placed his empty left hand on the ground to push himself up, except it wasn't the hard, rough hewn stone platform they had been standing on. It felt smooth and polished. The air around him felt cool and comfortable with a slight scent of salt as though he were standing on the docks back in San Francisco. After the intense heat of mere seconds before, it began to chill him in his sweat soaked Starfleet uniform.

"Don't move!" He heard someone order, and then heard something like several clicks echoing around a large chamber.

Travis froze where he was on his hands and knees, his eyes held down at the red marbled floor. He focused on trying to extend his awareness around him. He felt some confusion, but also people responding professionally, in the way they had been trained. There would be no loose cannons. Neither he nor the men he had been with would be in any danger at the moment. No, in fact, he sensed that they were more relaxed here than they had ever been.

He wished he could say the same.

"Hold your fire!" Came Colonel Shepherd's somewhat dazed yet clearly understandable voice. "He's with me." The last words came out as mild groan.

Around Travis voices began to chatter and people began to speak to the cocoa skinned soldier. Travis could hear their voices. They were speaking in English, though with an accent he didn't quite recognize. They addressed the Colonel with deference and respect.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up and behind him to see a dark skinned hand, not much different from his own, extended. He took it and was helped to his feet.

"Thanks." He told the man.

"No problem, sir." Came the soldier's response. Except for his black tactical uniform, he didn't look that much different than Travis or his brother.

Travis then looked around him in all directions. He was standing in a large chamber next to a stargate similar to the one they had just jumped through, though the symbols were markedly different in that it was far more obvious that they represented star constellations, and the chevrons were blue crystal instead of the red he had seen before.

Behind the gate was a long tall stained glass window that had sunlight streaming through it diffused into bright colors. Above and around the gate were arches and architecture that looked both vaguely familiar and alien at the same time. Vulcan maybe? Italian? Some mix of both?

As he came around to face the men he had just forced against their will through the active stargate, he saw a grand staircase lit with some kind of a blocky writing that he had never seen before. At the top of the staircase was a large set of bay glass windows with what looked like a control room beyond it. The purple and gray uniformed people beyond it were all staring at him.

One of those people, a tall, middle-aged blond haired woman with a clear air of authority about her said something to one of the men seated in the control room and then came out through a side door at the top of the stairs and began her descent down them. The expression on her face was grave, though not unfriendly. As Travis reached out through the Force, he didn't sense any malevolence from her, though she was extremely concerned, and just a touch angry. But the anger was directed at the other man who had just gotten to his feet.

"What the hell was that about, sir?" One of the soldiers that Travis had thrown through the gate asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

Travis was about to answer when the woman had reached the bottom of the steps and beat him to it.

"That's my question, too, Colonel. What right did you have to bring anyone through without authorization? You all were damn lucky we deactivated the iris-shield when we read your R.F.I.D. tags coming through or you all would have been organic sludge by now!" The woman raised her voice. Travis recognized her voice as the woman who spoke to Shepherd through his communicator.

"It was my fault, ma'am. I didn't give them much of a choice." Travis spoke up.

"Oh really? And you are?" She demanded.

"Lieutenant Travis Mayweather, Starfleet, United Earth, ma'am." Travis stood up straight and crisp, answering in a professional manner.

The woman paused, and Travis could feel the anger drain out of her to be replaced by both some disbelief and curiosity.

"You're from Earth?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am." He answered. He decided it was for the best to leave out the details of the majority of his life aboard starships.

The woman then looked to Colonel Shepherd, "Colonel?" She asked.

"Travis, meet Samantha O'Neill, governor of Atlantis and the planet Lantea." Shepherd gestured between the two.

"Madam governor." Travis replied formally.

"And for the record, corporal," Shepherd turned to face the soldier that had asked, "What the _Enterprise's_ officer just did was to save your ass and mine from getting eaten by what looked like a fifty ton armored worm." He then turned to Travis and said, "Thanks for the heads up."

Travis just nodded. "There wasn't time to call for the transporter. The stargate was our only option of not becoming worm chow."

The governor looked in between the two men with a look of confusion on her face. Then she said, "I'm certain this is going to make for an interesting briefing, Colonel." She then looked again at the other men who came through. "Where is Dr. McKay?"

"She's still back in the Milky Way; aboard the _Enterprise_. Our coming back through the gate wasn't exactly planned." Shepherd responded. "She's safe. We just need to open the gate again and send a message through to _Enterprise_ and let them know what happened before they break orbit and leave without us."

"Right." The governor replied, contemplating it. "Of course." She then touched an earpiece on her right ear and said, "Dial the planet's coordinates again." She told the control room. To the men around her, she said, "Gentlemen, we don't want to be standing right here at the moment."

They all took the hint and moved away from the front of the gate and watched as the symbols on the gate began to light up.

But nothing happened. No vortex. No response.

She touched her earpiece again and asked, "What's the problem?" She looked up towards the windowed control room. The uniformed person Travis could see through the window shook his head and said something that he couldn't hear.

The lights on the gate spun around again. Six of the blue chevrons lit up again, and then the gate died again.

"What does that mean?" Travis asked.

"It means things just got a lot more complicated." Shepherd responded, frustrated. "You may be here a lot longer than you bargained for."

Travis looked to Governor O'Neill for more of an explanation, "What does he mean?"

"The control room can't establish a lock on the other gate. Either it's been destroyed or else there's something obstructing the formation of the wormhole like debris or even just dirt." She responded.

"Or sand?" Travis asked, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach.

She nodded. "If the gate's been buried in it then, yes. I'm sorry."

"So what now?" Travis asked.

"For now," She began with a controlled, politic expression, "you are our guest and the first representative from Earth we've had in over a hundred years. There are a number of questions we would like answered, and I'm sure you have many of your own. Lieutenant Mayweather of United Earth, welcome to Atlantis."

"There is no organic residue anywhere on the platform, and no trace of our away team." T'Pol reported. "There is however significant signs of damage and scraping against the surface of the rock by something massive, and most likely moving. The sensors have detected a substantial amount of the material the stargate is made up of buried one hundred and thirty meters below the surface. By my calculations, it is most likely the stargate itself."

Archer ran this over in his head. "You said something _moving?_ " He asked. "How is that possible if there's no other life forms down there?"

"I did not suggest that it was a life form, Captain." She replied. "Our sensors have detected no bio signs at all on the planet's surface or underneath it."

"Is it possible that there might be creatures down there that the sensors wouldn't pick up as bio signs?" Archer asked.

"Many things are possible when the reality of them is unknown, Captain." Came T'Pol's response.

 _Well that was cryptic_. Archer thought to himself. Out loud he said, "Travis said something about feeling tremors right before we lost contact. He said his scanners weren't picking up any seismic activity. You said our sensors weren't getting anything either."

"That is correct." T'Pol answered.

"What about just vibrations in the surface? Do we have anyway of tracking if something's moving under the surface, say down to a hundred meters or so?" Archer asked.

"Possibly." She responded and turned back to her control station, making some adjustments to the sensors. Within minutes she said, "Captain, I've found something. It looks like something very large and in motion three kilometers from the ruins and moving away from them."

"Can you tell how large?" Archer asked.

She took another minute, and then said, "By my calculations it's cylindrical, approximately one hundred meters long and ten meters in diameter. And the sensors are picking up similar movement farther away and around the planet from thousands of such disturbances and of similar size."

Archer tried to put together the scattered pieces of the puzzle. "So it's possible then that one of these things could have attacked the gate platform and dragged the stargate back down with it?"

"It's impossible to know for certain, but that scenario does fit the data as it stands, Captain." T'Pol agreed. "But then what does that mean for the away team?" Her voice took on the hint, just the faintest hint, of emotion and Archer understood it to be the deep concern she had for their fellow crewmate. It was like a member of their family had gone missing without a trace.

"The gate was open when the attack happened." Archer tried to reason it out. "They may not have had time to call for transport out."

"But we can't know that for certain." Malcolm spoke up.

"No, but we can sure hope like hell that's what happened. Personally, that's what I'm going to go with until something else turns up to prove it wrong." Archer replied.

Malcolm just nodded. He wanted it to be true too, whatever the odds against it.

"But if that is true, with the stargate buried, they will not be able to return." T'Pol pointed out.

"One problem at a time, T'Pol." Archer said, thinking of all the other problems that had to be solved. "If they've gone through to Atlantis, then they're safe and they've got a working stargate on the other side. We know the gate on Earth is unburied and so does Travis. If he has to get back that way, he can. Otherwise, I've been told there are thousands of gates in this galaxy that he can use. And the truth is, right now he's in the best place he can be. It's his mission now." He then paused, and added, "And with this Klingon beacon now, we've got ours. We need to warn Starfleet of what's happened and get home for repairs as soon as possible. From what I've seen of Klingons, we may not have a lot of time before they respond. Agreed?"

He looked around the bridge, and saw uncertainty about leaving a crewmate behind. But then that uncertainty began to be replaced with understanding and agreement.

"That is the logical course of action, Captain." T'Pol agreed.

"Alright, let's get home." Archer then told the crewman at the helm. "Set course for Earth; as much speed as you can give me."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The air was salty and warm, but not too warm that morning, as Travis stood out on the balcony of the guest apartment he had been lent the day before by Atlantis's governor. It reminded him of ocean air of the beaches of California near San Francisco, or, no… more like Jamaica, or the Caribbean on Earth when he had taken spring break there once during his time at Starfleet Academy. The sun shone bright and friendly not far above the eastern horizon in lightly clouded skies. He didn't know exactly what time it was, but he guessed it wasn't quite mid-morning by the sun and the shadows.

 _I could have stranded myself in worse places_ , he thought to himself.

Beyond the protruding buildings and towers of the floating city, though he had been told there was a large continent somewhere on this planet, the ocean's waters seemed to stretch on forever. He had already felt small at times, contained only within the metal of a starship's hull. But he had grown up with that, and it felt no more imposing to him then a kid's backyard. But this… The ocean was vast, and deep, and powerful. Open space paid no attention to you either way. But the sea… The sea demanded your respect. It could be a sailor's friend, or his grim reaper and in equal measures, and Travis now felt himself at it's mercy as well.

 _Now I understand why the ancient sailors took measures to try to keep their sea gods happy._ The thought came. _I wouldn't want to that to be mad at me either_.

He wore only the undergarments he had been loaned by the military quartermaster while his own uniform and undergarments were being laundered. The phase pistol he had carried had been confiscated. No one saw the metal cylinder he had been holding in his hand as a threat, so they didn't bother with it, and neither did he offer information about it. His lightsaber lay on the bed not far into the room behind him, along with his other, standard away team equipment which he had been allowed to keep. From what he had been able to see of the technology which was at these people's command, they probably thought his hand scanner and communicator were quaint and archaic.

The briefing the day before had been enlightening for both parties as the governor made Travis wait for some time until she could speak to her military commander. After about an hour or so, they brought him into a conference room dominated by a half circle or horse shoe shaped copper and synthetics table.

The architecture of the room itself followed the same, cathedral like yet alien architecture of the gate room. It was dominated by green and copper paneling with the same red marble flooring. Computer monitors hung in a couple of places around the terminal points of the half circle on opposite sides of bay windows that looked out over other parts of the city. It looked comfortable, yet also both academic and professional. Like it had been designed by a race of scholars and scientists. Maybe the Vulcans _did_ have something to do with it, he had mused.

The governor had politely motioned for him to take a seat opposite Colonel Shepherd, and another man whom Travis had never met.

"So, Lieutenant," the governor began, "Colonel Shepherd here has already told me of his own experiences and the information about the status of Earth and the Milky Way, but I'd like to ask you a few more questions if you wouldn't mind."

Travis didn't hesitate, "I'll answer any questions I can, ma'am." He didn't sense any hostility from her at all, nor any ulterior motives. His feelings through the Force told him she was a sincere woman with a great burden of leadership on her shoulders. Though… Not just of this city?

"Thank you, that will make this so much easier." She replied. "So, to start with, Colonel Shepherd tells me Earth is now governed by a 'United Earth' government. Can you tell me more about that?"

"Yeah, sure." Travis said, glad that the first question would be relatively painless. "Uh, the United Earth government was sort of born out of the old United Nations after First Contact happened in twenty sixty four, almost a hundred years ago now. The governments that survived the Eugenics Wars came together after realizing we weren't the only sentient species out there."

"So, there are no national governments anymore?" She pressed.

"Oh no, there are regional national governments, like Britain and the United States of America, Brazil, the United States of Africa, and so on. But they're all subject to the United Earth council." Travis responded.

"So, they're not sovereign nations any longer? And the citizens of these nations are okay with that?" She asked.

"No, I guess they're not. Maybe more like the American states were in the late twentieth and early twenty first century." Travis responded. "And in answer to your second question, yeah, after First Contact, I guess none of us could think that provincially any more."

She paused to consider this. Then she continued. "You mentioned a 'First Contact' now a couple of times. Can you give us more details about that? With whom did you make first contact?"

 _Man, every kindergarten kid on Earth and around it knows the answer to that question_ , he thought to himself. "We made first contact with a race called the 'Vulcans'. They're from the 40 Eridani A system, sixteen light years from Earth. That was after a scientist named Zephram Cochrane invented the warp drive and tested his first warp ship at ten A.M. on the fifth of April, twenty sixty three from Bozeman, Montana. They were in a passing ship and detected his warp signature. I guess they had been watching us for some time, and after we got the ability to travel faster than light, they decided it was time to introduce themselves. From there and up until recently they'd been helping us to, uh… _slowly_ ease into the rest of the galactic community. We've got well over a dozen colony worlds out there now, all of them kept in contact by means of warp powered ships."

Travis didn't know if it would be prudent to go into _all_ of Earth's ups and downs with their relations with the Vulcans. _Just keep it at the grade school level, that'll still be new information to them_.

"I see." She seemed genuinely surprised, though she had tried to keep it well hidden, and it felt like she had been expecting a different answer in both the who and the how of First Contact. "And how far out into the galaxy have you been able to go?"

"Well, _Enterprise_ , the ship I'm assigned to has been as far as fifty light years out from Earth in the past eight years, but we've got other space exploration ships out there now going even farther."

"Fifty light years?" She seemed almost amused, and he could feel her resisting the urge to add, "is that all?"

Travis resisted the urge to get defensive, but did say, "Warp drive does have its limits, but we've covered a lot of space in those last eight years, and made a lot of new friends and allies. Some of whom we've formed a pretty tight alliance with called the Coalition of Planets. Now, they're all in talks to form an interplanetary government similar to the United Earth. The diplomats are calling it a 'United Federation of Planets'. So far it involves us, the Vulcans, Andoria, Tellar, Coridan, Rigel, and Denobula, and I've heard rumors of other worlds wanting to be involved as well. I think we've done pretty well for ourselves with just warp drive."

The governor made eye contact with Shepherd which seemed to suggest something like, "you didn't tell me about that." His own body language suggested something like, "I didn't know about it."

After another moment's pause, she collected herself again and asked, "You're an officer in something called 'Starfleet.' What is that? A part of the military?"

Ouch. Travis didn't like to think of Starfleet that way, and he said so. "I prefer to think of us more as an agency of exploration. Starfleet was born out of the old United Earth Space Probe Agency, formed not long after the United Earth government was. It became Starfleet about twenty years ago now or so. We go out armed, that's true, but it's just to defend ourselves from what's out there." His mind then turned back to some of their later, more recent missions, and then conceded, "and yeah, when it comes to defending Earth and its allies now, Starfleet's right there on the front lines too providing a command structure for all of our Coalition's military vessels. Like in the war we recently fought with a species called the Romulans. We didn't start it, but Starfleet finished it."

She asked many more questions stretching out for another hour about conditions on Earth, international relations, interplanetary relations, and more until Travis began to feel like he had become a current studies professor to a bunch of elementary school kids. It had never really occurred to him that there could be a group of humans out there that didn't know all of this.

Then she said, "Thank you, Lieutenant, for your cooperation. Now, I'm sure you have some questions for us."

The truth was, Travis was exhausted from answering all of her questions, but he tried to shake the tiredness out and ask those questions he thought Captain Archer would ask. "Well, uh, I don't know a whole lot about your people or your history. What is this city? How did you all come to be here a galaxy away from Earth?"

"I presume Colonel Shepherd told you about the old Stargate Program?" She asked.

"Uh, I heard bits and pieces, but I think he had that conversation with Captain Archer. From what I understand, it was run by the old American government's military using the stargates to travel to other planets without the rest of the world knowing. It's headquarters was under a mountain in Colorado." Travis replied. He knew about the headquarters, firsthand having been there only days before.

"Well, that's a start anyway." She replied. "The stargates were originally designed and built by a race of humans we now call the Ancients, though most of the humans in our galaxy still call them the Ancestors. They originally came from a distant galaxy across the universe. They first came to the Milky Way galaxy while fleeing persecution for their beliefs from a rival faction called the Ori. They settled on Earth millions of years ago where they built this city and established colonies and cities on worlds throughout the Milky Way." She spoke this as though she herself was reciting a history that every school age kid knew.

"So how did it get here in Pegasus?" Travis asked.

"A million years ago there was a plague on Earth that also swept throughout the galaxy," she continued, "causing the deaths of most if not all of the human populations. In response, those who were unaffected quarantined themselves in Atlantis and launched it from Earth bringing it to this world here in Pegasus where they recovered and seeded this galaxy with human life and populations, expanding their civilization once again until ten thousand years ago when the Ancients went to war with an alien race called the Wraith. While they were technologically advanced, the Wraith outnumbered them. Eventually, they chose to submerge the city to protect it, but it wasn't enough. So the survivors used the stargate to return to Earth where they chose to live out their days. Some of them chose to become teachers of the emerging human populations that had evolved natively. Some of them chose to spend their time in meditation and upon their deaths, ascended."

"Around the year two thousand and three, Stargate Command discovered the gate coordinate for this city, and an expeditionary team was sent to explore and if possible recover it. The members of that team, and other personnel from the original Stargate Command were our ancestors. Eventually, they brought the city back to Earth using the city's own stardrive engines in order to defend the planet from an attack by the Wraith. In the year twenty fourteen, the decision was made to return Atlantis to Pegasus, where the city and we have remained ever since. From their our ancestors re-established contact with the allies they had made during the five years they had been here previously, and a new alliance, a 'Coalition of Planets' as you put it, was formed as well. Eventually, Atlantis and it's resources, much like your Starfleet, came to be the command and control center for that alliance's defensive structure."

Travis tried to take all of it in as she talked, and he knew she was just giving him the short, short version of their history. There was much that she wasn't saying as well.

"When what you call the Eugenics Wars began around twenty fifty, most of the ships operated by Stargate Command and the United States Airforce were already conducting missions elsewhere in either the Milky Way or here in Pegasus. The first nuclear attack took everyone by surprise. From what I gathered from my great-grandparents's journals and logs, no one expected Khan to launch a first strike against the United States like that, and one of the first missiles to fall hit Cheyenne Mountain directly. All of the personnel from Stargate Command, and the North American Air Defense Command in the levels of the facility closer to the surface were evacuated before the missile hit. When our ancestors tried to dial the gate back to Earth, they couldn't get a lock."

"Several weeks after that, the half dozen or so of the Daedalus class vessels that were operated by Stargate Command appeared in orbit around Lantea with a story of a devastated Earth. The commander of the first ship to arrive back at Earth told the base commander at the time that the world looked like Armageddon had happened. He hadn't been able to raise any of the command authorities to which they were responsible by that point in time. Washington D.C., the American capital, looked as though it had been erased."

"Yeah, I remember reading about that. It was a bad, bad time to be on Earth from what I remember." Travis replied.

"At the time, the only authorities with any real power appeared to be genetically engineered dictators." She continued again. "Some of our people, my great grandfather included, wanted to send our warships back to avenge our people on Khan and the rest of the 'supermen' from orbit. Cooler heads than his prevailed. There was a lot of pain and hurt to go around. Our ancestors eventually made the very difficult decision that revealing our existence to to those dictators, even in just offering our aid in rebuilding in the aftermath, would be a disaster not just for Earth, but for the rest of the Milky Way. So, here we remained. Within the year after that, the off-world Milky Way base personnel that Stargate Command maintained were informed of the developments on Earth and relocated here to Atlantis."

"And you didn't send a ship back after that to find out what had become of us?" Travis asked. He tried to understand what would make them just abandon their home world like that.

"In retrospect, it was what we should have done." She agreed. "But my ancestors couldn't make contact through the stargate ever again after that, and even with our hyperspace capable ships, it's still at least a three week journey between Lantea and anywhere in the Milky Way. They focused on rebuilding their lives and establishing relationships and a governing structure here. They didn't think that there was anyone left behind to save. They chose to mourn what they had lost, but to live the lives they still had."

Travis now stood pondering that explanation as he felt the warm sunlight on his skin and took in the sea air. Below him on the main avenues and byways of the city, he could hear the sounds of children playing. Couples were talking. There were vendors of some kind offering snack foods from carts moving through the walkways. For a brief minute, if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine himself back at Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco.

The briefing had gone for several hours as both sides were brought up to speed and Travis continued to ask questions, and then the subject came around to the mission he and Yoda had undertaken and why. In that, Travis had to call to his mind every memory he had just recovered of the _Enterprise's_ mission to the time and galaxy that had been native to Yoda.

He had received several disbelieving looks from Governor O'Neill who frequently looked to Colonel Shepherd for confirmation. He continued to nod his head to her in all seriousness, confirming everything Travis told her.

"Master Yoda told me what happened to his own interplanetary government when just one Sith Lord had gone unnoticed by those responsible for preventing his rise. And we both know, Madam Governor, what happened when evil men were left unchecked on Earth in the mid-twenty first century. I can't let that happen. I'm not asking you to believe in the Force or any of it. But I am asking for any help you can give me in finding this man and stopping him." He had practically pleaded with her.

At this, Colonel Shepherd spoke up as well but in a more familiar way with the Governor. "Jennifer's still back there too, Sam. And we still don't leave our people behind." He had then locked eyes with Travis and said, "Any of our people."

Travis understood. _Enterprise_ had a real ally in the Colonel. He didn't need the Force to sense that.

"No. We don't." She agreed. After a moment's pause, she then said, "Thank you, gentlemen. It looks like I have some decisions to make."

 _And so do I._ He thought as he stood on the balcony in his white undershirt, shorts and dark skinned, bare feet. Then the door chime went off.

"Yeah, just a minute!" He called out as he came back into the apartment and pulled the green pair of trousers he had been given from a coppery green dresser next to the bed. He hastily got into them, covering over the undershorts he wore.

 _Well, at least that's a little more presentable._ He thought to himself.

The doorbell chimed again.

"Coming!" He called out again.

On the other side of the door, he could sense Ronan Shepherd's presence as he came up to it and put his hand to the plate which would open the door. It slid open noiselessly.

"Hey, can I come in?" Colonel Shepherd asked.

"Yeah, sure." Travis responded, and the military commander, dressed in a decidedly unformal tan polo shirt and blue denim trousers came into his apartment.

"Did you sleep okay?" The colonel asked, trying to keep things friendly, although Travis could sense that there was more he had to say.

"Yeah. Everything was fine." He responded. "What's new?"

"I thought you might like some company for breakfast this morning." Shepherd responded. Then he added, "And I have news."

"Oh?" Travis asked.

"We got a positive match on the gate address you brought back from Stargate Command. It's a world they called Hebridan." He told him.

"Okay." Travis said. "And?"

"And it was a technologically advanced world at the time our ancestors made contact with it. But not long after that, it was conquered by the Ori. The population that refused to convert was decimated. After that, Earth lost contact with them around two thousand and four."

"The Ori? Who's that?" Travis asked, not understanding the reference.

"I'll fill you in later. But for now what you need to know is that this guy chose a planet that, at least in time past, might've see him as some kind of a religious figure or maybe even a deity if he has anywhere close to the abilities you described." Shepherd told him. "It might also still have some of that advanced technology laying around, even a hundred and fifty years later."

"The _General Landry_ , one of our battle cruisers just entered orbit around Lantea. They'll be landing on the east pier in about an hour to resupply." He told him. "We're both going to be on it when it leaves."

"Where is it taking us?" Travis asked.

"Earth, by way of Hebridan." Shepherd told him. "It's a three week trip, but it's the best we can do. Hebridan's in the part of the Milky Way you call the Gamma Quadrant."

"Can't I just use the stargate to get there?" Travis asked. A three week delay seemed like an eternity.

"We've still got to go get Jennifer back, and we don't know exactly where _Enterprise_ is going to be right now. We can't make contact with the desert planet's stargate, and we don't know if Earth's stargate is still secure. And if this guy's as dangerous as you say, you'll need back up. To that end we'll be joined by another ship coming in for resupply around noon as well. If all goes according to plan, we'll be on our way after dinner." He paused, and Travis could feel some kind of irony coming as Shepherd mentioned the second ship. He then added. "Like I said, we don't leave our people behind."

Travis took a minute to process this. "Okay." He finally said, picking up his lightsaber from the bed and slipping it into the pocker of his trousers. "Let's do this."

"But first, breakfast." Shepherd said. "There's a great little Athosian restaurant over near the landing platform on the east pier I want to show you. Some of the best seafood you've never had."

Travis smirked as he sat down on the bed and pulled on a pair of white socks, study leather boots and a tan polo shirt which matched Shepherd's own. After he pulled the shirt over his head, he remembered the feeling of irony he got when Shepherd mentioned the second ship and he had to ask, "Colonel, what's the name of the second ship?"

Shepherd smiled and said, " _Enterprise."_

A big grin spread over Travis's face. "I guess some traditions just don't fade away, do they." He said.

"Nope. Let's go eat." Shepherd said.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Captain's Log: July 18th, 2159

 _Enterprise has arrived in Earth's solar system after two weeks of hobbling along at warp three point five and we are putting in for repairs to our port nacelle and a replenishment of our antimatter storage tanks. Commander Tucker tells me that the full repairs shouldn't take more than a day with the space dock's resources._

 _After having informed him via an encrypted subspace message of the incident with the Klingons two weeks ago, I have a face to face meeting with Admiral Gardner about it. I can't say I'm looking forward to that. It feels a little like it did when I was called to the principle's office in second grade. I think part of it is that he hasn't actually responded to our communique since we sent it, so we've been completely in the dark about what's going on since then._

 _After much personal debate, I've chosen to report nothing about the rogue S.I. officer, or the incident in the Cheyenne Mountain facility; at least not yet. I honestly don't know who to trust on this yet, and if my gut feeling is right, no one at Command will even admit to its existence. I wish Admiral Forrest was still here. I might even settle for Soval at this point, but he's still deep in the Federation talks, and I don't want to do anything to distract him from that._

 _And then there's what to do with Dr. Jennifer McKay who was left stranded on Enterprise after what we continue to presume was the return of the rest of her team to Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy taking Lieutenant Mayweather with them. Except for a couple of incidents involving chef's choice of lemon chicken for the mess hall, she's been settling in with Enterprise's crew as well as can be expected. But now that we've arrived at Earth, where does she go from here?_

The sun shone down fiercely in the heat of the mid-summer, coastal Californian day. Slowly but surely, the damage from the last century's love affair with fossil fuels and nuclear bombardment was correcting itself. Earth had come so close to the brink of no return, that, given everything else humans tended to complain about Vulcans for, no one on Earth ever complained about the Vulcan "interference" in helping to bring it back. Environmental scientists were projecting that it would take at least another century before global temperatures stabilized, but at least they would stabilize.

Under other circumstances, Jonathan Archer might have enjoyed it in a tee-shirt and shorts either walking the San Francisco docks or finding a nice quiet beach with a chair and a good book to go with it. But Captain Archer had other business to attend to that couldn't wait as he entered Starfleet Headquarters' main building where Admiral Gardner waited for him.

Those within the building that recognized him gave him mixed looks of either respect, in the case of the more senior personnel and officers, or awe, in the case of several junior officers and a few cadets working as interns. The former he could tolerate, though there were more times than not that he wondered whether or not he really deserved it; but the latter truly made him feel uncomfortable. A pedestal was no place he wanted to be; not after the kinds of things he had been forced to do to accomplish his missions. It irked him that he couldn't escape it unless he was at least fifteen light years away from his home world.

He nodded politely and gave a grimaced smile to both kinds of people that he passed as he headed up the stairs to the Admiral's office at the end of the second floor hallway.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the Admiral's door.

"Come in, Jon." Came Admiral Gardner's voice.

 _Yep, just like Miss Devonwood's office in second grade._ He thought to himself as he let himself in.

"You wanted to see me in person, sir?" He asked deferentially. He and Gardner were both test pilots in Starfleet's original "X" program testing the latest warp engine designs (and surviving the aftermath), and had known each other for over twenty years. Gardner could have ended up Captain of the _Enterprise_ just as easily as he had (he would have if Soval had originally had his way), and it could have been Archer sitting in the Admiral's chair instead.

Gardner could keep the office and the extra bar on his uniform. Archer liked _Enterprise's_ chair just fine.

"Take a seat, captain." Gardner told him. His voice betrayed nothing of what was going through his mind, making Archer that much more wary.

Archer did as he was told. He looked around the office as he did so. It didn't look that much different from when it had been Admiral Forrest's office, except the people in the small picture frames on the desk were different. Behind the Admiral's chair, the Golden Gate bridge could be seen in the distance through several windows.

When he was settled, the Admiral called up a computer monitor next to his chair and behind the desk. "What I'm about to show you is highly classified and need to know, Jon. I couldn't take the risk of any response message back to _Enterprise_ being intercepted by a clever news crew, or worse. After all the anti-alien sentiment we've fought against over the past several years for the diplomats to bring the Federation talks this far, we really don't need this getting out just yet." He began evenly. "A week ago, _Columbia_ took these sensor readings near the desert world where your crewmen encountered the Klingons."

He hit a few places on his desktop, and the monitor showed half a dozen small blips against a background of stars orbiting a circle meant to represent a planet. Each one of them was represented by the emblem of the Klingon Empire.

Archer studied the display. Six Klingon ships had responded to the beacon. _Well, it's not as bad as it could have been._ He thought to himself.

Then Gardner's fingers tapped his desk again. "These readings were from two days ago."

Where once there had been only six blips, now there were dozens.

"They're massing," Archer stated the obvious, "for an invasion?"

Gardner nodded. "I can't see that they're just there for a confab." His voice tinged with sarcasm. "What's worse is that we don't actually know what the Empire's total fleet strength is, but we do know they've been space faring for a lot longer than we have, so it's a safe assumption that no matter what we'll be outgunned. And with what we believe the Klingons' current level of warp technology to be, they can be at Earth's doorstep one week from today."

Gardner then took a deep breath and let it out tensely. "I have just one question for you, Jon. Did you have any idea that this world meant anything to the Klingons when you sent an away team down?" His voice betrayed a frustration that bordered on anger being kept in restraint.

"No." Archer answered flatly, not a little offended. Gardner should have known better than to ask that. "We only entered orbit in response to a distress call we received. A group of explorers that we emergency transported to sickbay. After they were well enough, we sent an away team to recover their equipment. That's when the away team ran into the Klingons. From the report I was given, the Klingons attacked first. My people defended themselves. We had no way of knowing that this planet meant anything to them. It's not even within recognized Klingon boundaries."

For all intents and purposes it was the truth. It just wasn't _all_ of the truth. He still hadn't informed Command of the nature of _Enterprise's_ guests, and he didn't think now was the right time to do so either. Not when there were such larger issues at stake.

Gardner took another breath and let it out in a sigh. "The Klingons don't seem to understand the meaning of 'territorial boundaries'. It doesn't seem to matter now anyway. Because of the actions of your crew, intentional or not, Earth is now facing an imminent attack by the Klingon Empire. I don't have to tell you that we don't yet have the fleet strength to repel it, not on our own. I've been in high level talks with my counterparts across our new Coalition, and while the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites are willing to help defend us, they all agree that no one is walking away from this without mass casualties. Hell, Jon, even if we win this fight. If this planet was somehow sacred to them, then you've pissed them off to the point that there's every possibility they'll just keep throwing resources at us until we buckle."

Archer could only nod. There was really nothing he could say. There was a verbal reprimand in the Admiral's voice, and with it Archer wondered if he should just leave his Captain's bars on the desk when he left, or if there might be something more public.

"You can keep your captain's chair if that's what your wondering. I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing and still gotten all of us into this mess." Gardner told him. "But we're going to need a command vessel to coordinate the Coalition fleet in the defense of Earth. There's no captain in Earth's Starfleet that the Coalition fleet commanders trust more than you, Jon."

Archer understood. " _Enterprise_ caused the problem, and we have to be a part of the solution." It wasn't a question, just an acknowledgment of the facts.

"You'll rendezvous with the rest of our fleet around Jupiter as soon as your ship's repairs are complete." Gardner nodded. "Starfleet ships will begin regular patrols using Pluto's orbit as a reference point. They'll be augmented by Coalition resources as they are made available to us."

"That's a large patrol area." Archer remarked thinking about the distance that would have to be crossed. It could take almost an hour at best at warp five for one patrol ship to cross the diameter of Pluto's orbit to reach one another if they were spread thin, and Archer knew they didn't have the fleet strength to cover the entire spherical area.

"Well, they could choose the direct route, which would put them within a million kilometers of Pluto's current position in orbit, or they could come around and enter from any of the other thousands or so of points. It's a big solar system. We really don't have a lot of options at this point." Gardner told him.

Archer studied the face of his commanding officer. Gardner looked exhausted. There were bags under his eyes. He looked as though he had aged ten years since the last time he had seen him, and the man was only a year or two older than he.

"Understood, sir." Archer said.

"Good. Then you're dismissed, Captain." Admiral Gardner told him. Then his expression softened and he added, "Good luck, Jon; for all our sakes."

The view from the mess hall window reminded Travis of an aurora effect like the northern lights on Earth, except it was moving insanely fast. After two weeks, he had kind of gotten used to it, but it still didn't feel right. His heart kept telling him there should be stars streaking by out those windows.

The entree on the tray in front of him resembled salisbury steak with gravy and a side of vegetables, except he wasn't sure exactly what kind of meat his lunch consisted of, or the vegetables for that matter. That wasn't a big deal, he'd eaten plenty of mystery meals growing up on a cargo ship warping from planet to planet. As long as it was at least edible he could get through it. It sure wasn't chef's cooking though.

Two weeks in space and he literally had nothing to do. Growing up, there were always jobs to be done around his parents' ship, the _Horizon,_ and he was the chief helmsman aboard the _Enterprise_. This was the first time he'd ever been aboard a ship for this long without some kind of a job in maintaining that ship.

It was almost driving him nuts.

Sure, a couple days with nothing to do, yeah, that could be relaxing. Granted, there was a murderous, maniac Sith waiting for him at the other end, but still. But three weeks?

What was worse was it was the first time he had really been given time to process everything that had happened to him. And while Yoda wasn't really dead, it was the first time he had to process the loss of his mentor. And it was a bigger blow to him than he realized it would be.

The whole prospect of being a Jedi, the _last_ Jedi for that matter, was a lot scarier now that he was alone. When he really thought about it, the enormity of the task that lay on his shoulders was almost crippling, and for the first couple of days as it sank in, it almost did cripple him.

Colonel Shepherd, Ronan, seemed to be handling it a lot better, although he made frequent visits to the bridge to consult with the _Landry's_ commander, a Colonel Hawthorne. Travis had learned the name of the commander of Atlantis's _Enterprise_ was a Colonel Ellis, and that there was some kind of a military tradition of ship's commanders in his family dating back to the old "Daedalus" class vessels the United States Air Force operated a hundred and fifty years prior.

Travis had learned these two vessels were built about twenty or thirty years ago by Atlantis's Coalition using a hybrid of Ancient "Aurora" class and Earth's "Daedalus" class designs. The resulting ships resembled something like pictures he had seen of the humpback whales that used to live in Earth's oceans, except these whales were steel gray and copper and had port and starboard hanger bays for smaller space and atmospheric fighter craft he had heard referred to as "F-502"s. Ronan had told him that their Coalition of Planets operated a fleet of thirty such vessels that defended their worlds from the predations of the hostile vampiric species they referred to as the "Wraith".

After the first couple of days, Travis took to staying in the quarters he was sharing with Ronan except for meals. There were some books and video entertainment screens in the cramped quarters, and he tried to keep himself occupied with that for a time, but his mind kept coming back to weight of the responsibility with which he had been entrusted.

By the third day, Ronan asked if Travis wanted to spar with him in the ship's gym, and Travis accepted, thankful for something physical to do to take his mind off of things. When they had gotten out on the mat, Ronan had gone to a rack on the wall and selected two synthetic composite practice swords, then tossed one of them at him to catch it.

"Sword combat?" Travis had asked. "That seems a little out of place with all this technology around us." And it did, given that some of the technology seemed light years ahead of even his own _Enterprise_.

"If I've learned anything running operations through the stargate, it's that you can't always rely on technology or a technological advantage. A lot of the worlds in Pegasus are still medieval at best. Sometimes in a fight, all you've got is the nearest piece of wood or metal and you've got to make do. My ancestor, John Shepherd, became a master of sword combat when he was Atlantis's military commander sparring with my great-grandmother and one of his best friends, the man I was named for." He had responded. He then asked, "And aren't you supposed to be using some kind of a laser-sword or something? At least that's the way it was in the old movies. You still need to keep up those skills, don't you?"

"Right. Okay." Travis admitted. "I guess I can do this then."

At first, Ronan went easy on him as they sparred with wooden practice weapons and Travis got used to them, letting his muscle memory do the work. He was able to counter every blow, but the weight of the weapon was still somewhat unfamiliar.

"Good," Ronan encouraged. "But I know I saw you do better."

Then the colonel's attacks really came in earnest, and Travis was forced to deflect them faster and faster. It wasn't long before he couldn't, not on his own, and he felt the bruises that proved it to him.

"What happened?" Ronan had asked him after they had stopped. "I saw you cut through those Klingons like they were standing still."

"That was the Force, not really me." Travis had told him, panting from the exertion.

"So, buddy, what do we have to do to get the Force to do it again?" Ronan asked. "Because you know this Sith Lord's not going to just leave bruises."

 _He's right_. Travis thought to himself. _What have I been doing all this time?_ He closed his eyes, and opened himself up to the living Force around him, and everything seemed to slow down as his awareness expanded.

"Let's do it again." He told him. "And this time, don't hold back."

"That's what I wanted to hear." Ronan told him, and then he unleashed composite bladed fury on Travis.

Since then, Travis's daily routine had consisted of meals, meditation in the Force in his quarters, and sparring as Force meditation with Colonel Shepherd in the _Landry's_ gym. In that time he had gotten to know a lot about the people and worlds Shepherd lived among and in. It was good to have him as a friend, and Travis got the sense that he was the kind of man where once you were his friend, he'd go to hell and back for you if you needed him.

He took another bite of his lunch as he continued to look out at the hyperspace vortex. He had been told that they had passed through the void between galaxies several days ago, although he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference just looking out the window. These ships didn't even have to stop to take sensor readings of where they were in hyperspace, they were so advanced.

 _And Earth had this technology a hundred and twenty years before I was born_.

That thought truly boggled his mind. How could they have kept it out of the public's knowledge for decades even? When the Vulcans landed, it seemed like the whole planet knew within the month. The U.S. government and its allies made off-world alliances and operated the entire stargate program, a fleet of hyperspace capable ships, and a functioning military base in another galaxy all with ninety-nine percent of Earth's population completely oblivious for almost fifty years.

 _How does that happen?_

"This seat taken?" Ronan's voice asked him, and Travis was pulled out of his thoughts.

"Go right ahead." Travis said. Ronan always seemed to ask that, even when he knew Travis was just waiting for him.

The Atlantis soldier set his tray on the table opposite Travis and sat down. Travis looked at the man's plate. It had the same entree on it that his own did.

"What is that meat anyway?" Travis asked, wondering if he really wanted to know.

"It's called a… well I'm not sure what it's actually called, but think of it as a cross between one of Earth's camels and an iguana and you've sort of got the right picture. You get used to it." He told him. Then he added after a swallowing a mouthful, "there's a reason why I took you to the seafood place on the east pier back home."

Travis smiled at that memory. It _was_ good. They had some kind of a savory lobster like meal for breakfast that day. It was spiced sort of like a mix between cayenne pepper and citrus. It had been good eating that morning.

After another bite, Ronan said, "Listen, I've been thinking."

"About what?" Travis asked.

"Why'd this guy go off-world? If his plan was to screw with Earth first somehow, why plant himself halfway across the galaxy where he wouldn't even know what was happening on Earth, and he knew no one from your world could touch him? Hell, as far as he knows, there'll be a contingent of trigger happy marines or whatever Starfleet has waiting for him if he steps back through the stargate." The colonel told him.

"Okay, so if he's not going to plot an overthrow, what do you think his plan is?" Travis asked. "Somehow start building an army of his own?" The whole overthrowing the government thing had been his operating assumption. Wasn't that a bad enough reason to go get him?

"Well, the other thing is, according to the database, this world was so devastated by the Ori, there was hardly anyone left to operate all the technology they left behind. Even after a hundred and fifty years, there still might not be enough people left to raise the kind of army he'd need, even if they followed him around like some sort of long lost divine prophet." Shepherd continued.

"Okay, so hostile takeover isn't his game. What then?" Travis asked.

"I was thinking about what you told me about Yoda's 'passing'. To me, it sounded like he ascended." Ronan explained. "And from what you said, and from what I remember from the old movies, it wasn't the first time. From the little bit of digging I did, it sounds from that whole series like Yoda was supposed to have been the first one to have manifested himself in the Force after he died, and he taught others to do the same before he did."

"Yeah." Travis admitted. "Okay. I'm with you so far."

"Well, who's to say that just the Jedi were able to do it?" Ronan told him.

"What do you mean?" Travis asked, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach.

"I've told you about the Ori, right? In my ancestor's time they were a group of ascended beings that posed as gods and tried to force everyone either through deception or by threat of death to worship them. They learned how to do it the same way the Ancients, the 'good guy' ascended beings did. It's driving me nuts that there might be some kind of connection there." Ronan finished.

Travis's mind raced with everything they had learned about Yoda's people, the Jedi and the Sith, and with the things he had learned about the Ancients and their origins and things began to fall into place a little too well.

"So what are you saying? He went there to somehow learn to ascend and become some kind of a deity?" Travis asked, trying to wrap his mind around it. "That's crazy."

"Welcome to my world. But unless we can come up with a better explanation of his plans, then yes, and the threat this guy poses is to more than just Earth and possibly more than just the Milky Way. And if that's so, we've got to be careful before you just go and take off his head. That may be exactly what he's planning on." Ronan told him gravely.

Travis considered this for some time. It felt like the truth somehow, yet it was so incredible to believe.

"So what do I do then?" He asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about that too. I've got a plan, but it's going to require that you trust me completely." Ronan told him, and then he explained to him his plan.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Captain's Log: July 24th, 2159

 _After receiving word that the Klingon fleet left the planet the beacon referred to as Debma' five days ago, Enterprise continues on it's patrol orbit within the vicinity of Neptune's current position, which just happens to be just beyond Pluto's orbit during this time of its revolution around the Sun. The closest ship patrolling near us is the NX-03 Challenger, under the command of Captain Yumiko Inuyasha. Her patrol zone is about five minutes from us at warp five._

 _We've been running battle drills every day since we received the report of the inbound Klingons, but for the most part it's just been a lot of tense waiting. Commander Tucker tells me it feels a lot to him like when he was a kid and there was a bad hurricane coming in from off the Atlantic. Our scout ships tell us they will reach our solar system some time within the next forty eight hours._

 _Starfleet has a total of five NX class ships and six of the new Ares class battleships developed during the war with Romulus on patrol loosely around the circumference of Pluto's orbit, with another dozen Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite ships on loan to us to make up the difference. It might have been more if the Coalition wasn't already spread so thin to patrol the newly agreed upon Romulan Neutral Zone. This would be just the opportunity the Romulans need to launch a sneak attack against Vulcan, Andoria, or Tellar for that matter._

 _Damn, we just got done fighting a costly war. Why did this have to happen now?_

 _Yesterday, I received word from Admiral Gardner that might be considered good news of a sort. According to Soval and the Vulcan ambassadors sent to mediate between Earth and the Klingons, the Klingon High Council hasn't officially sanctioned the attack on Earth, though they're doing nothing to stop it. Apparently, the less devout members of the Council don't officially consider a ball of sand and desert to be worth the trouble to fight over. The ships that are being sent against Earth belong to an alliance of wealthy families loyal to their emperor cult's priesthood. No doubt one of them is the family of the Klingon who set up the beacon in the first place. It's small comfort, but it means that if we're able to turn them back, there won't be any further threat from the Klingons, at least not for the moment._

 _Right now, however, that's a big "if". The last count Columbia got on the number of vessels before Captain Hernandez had to join the rest of us was upwards of fifty Klingon warships, and that was a day before they broke orbit. Her vessel's now patrolling the region outwards from the Sun's northern pole._

 _No matter where the Klingons hit us from, none of us may have enough time to intercept them before we lose one of our own ships. The Solar system's just too damn big to guard all of it, but we can't just pull the net in tighter and abandon those research stations and colonies past Jupiter either._

 _It's times like this when I truly question my choices in answering every distress call. Even compassion can have unintended consequences for everyone. But then, could I really live with myself if I didn't?_

The bridge of the Atlantis Coalition Warship _General Landry_ would have been instantly recognizable to any of of the commanding officers of it's Earth built predecessors rather than those of the Ancient Lantean warships. Efficiency and function were still preferred by the military over form.

Colonel William Hawthorne sat in his command seat reading reports. Forward of him, and to his right and left, the officers at the operations and helm stations were focused on their displays.

 _As they should be._ Hawthorne thought to himself, as he scrolled through the display of a thin computer tablet.

Then from in front of him and to the right, he heard the even toned voice of the sandy haired operations officer on duty. _Fredrickson_ , the Colonel thought to himself.

"Colonel Hawthorne, sir, you may want to see this." The _Landry's_ Operations officer informed him.

The middle aged, heavily tanned commanding officer rose from his seat and, taking a couple of steps, bent over his officer's work station. "Okay," he said to him, "now tell me why I'm looking at your display, lieutenant."

The colonel's voice was rough and no nonsense. He had been a military man for going on three decades of his life, most of those spent on warships not far different from the one he now commanded, protecting not only his own home world of Lantea from a resurgent Wraith threat, but also the rest of the Pegasus Coalition.

"Sir, I'm receiving data from the long range sensors as we're passing within two hundred light years of Earth's solar system." The lieutenant coolly pointed to the readouts and graphical information on his screen. "According to those sensors, there are fifty eight vessels on a direct course for Earth originating from a planet the database is identifying as P3X-458, about twelve light years from Earth."

"Fifty eight vessels?" Hawthorne asked. "That's a lot of ships for just regular interstellar traffic." He said almost as if wondering aloud. It wasn't the first time they had picked up alien interstellar traffic since entering the Milky Way, but most of it was single ships heading elsewhere. This was the first time they'd seen anything heading towards Earth's position.

"Any idea what kind? Cargo ships, warships, refugee convoy?" He pressed.

"No sir, the long range sensors can't be that specific from this far away." Fredrickson replied.

 _So, cargo convoy or invasion force._ "What's their ETA?" He asked.

"Thirty six hours at present speed, sir." The con officer reported.

"Damn, that's slow." Hawthorne remarked. "What're they doing, crawling there on their hands and knees?"

His lieutenant smirked. "They're apparently using some kind of space warping propulsion system for FTL travel if I was to make an educated guess."

"And just how would you know that?" Hawthorne asked skeptically.

"I did my thesis on experimental Lantean propulsion systems, and there's always a certain plasma signature left behind with the space warping drives." The lieutenant answered, and then he pressed a few places on his touch screen countrols and brought up another sensor image which resembled something like a comet's trail to the rear of the fleet in motion. "This plasma trail strongly resembles what the Ancients described, sir, and it's similar to many of the other interstellar ships we've been able to take sensor scans of en route. This technology seems to be the dominant form of FTL travel that we've encountered so far."

 _Clever man. Wonder why he's up here in a combat seat and not down in engineering or back in Atlantis thinking up something else new and clever. I'll have to make some inquiries_. Hawthorne thought to himself.

"Just a hypothetical question, how long would it take for us to reach Earth's solar system from our current position and heading?" The colonel asked.

"Twelve hours in hyperspace, sir." Fredrickson replied without missing a beat.

 _Definitely have to make some inquiries._ He thought again.

Then, after he turned the information his officer gave him over in his mind a few times, he turned to his communications officer and said, "Jolie, get me Ellis on _Enterprise_. We may need to make a detour near Earth on our way to Hebridan to check something out. And someone get that Earth officer, uh, Lieutenant Mayweather up here. I may need a little more information about what to expect from the locals. I suspect he hasn't told us everything yet."

"Alright, Lieutenant, I'm told there are almost sixty vessels moving in a convoy towards Earth from this world here. Any idea why?" The middle aged man asked Travis, pointing at the desert world that Ronan and Travis had gated to Atlantis from.

The two ship's commanders, Travis, and Ronan were gathered in the _Landry's_ war room just adjacent to the warship's bridge. They had dropped out of hyperspace to reassess their priorities in light of the new sensor data and now stood floating at a position a little less than two hundred light years from Earth.

Travis looked at the display, and then as recognition came over him, he looked at Ronan who confirmed it with a nodded. Travis remembered his captain telling him about the Klingon beacon he had sent the M.A.C.O.s to destroy. It was the only explanation that made sense. He then gave the two Atlantis colonels a rough synopsis of what happened, being careful to leave out certain details which would only complicate it more.

Hawthorne and Ellis listened to Travis's account of his own last encounter with the Klingon with serious expressions on their face throughout most of it. When he was through, they both glanced at each other knowingly.

Ellis was the first one to speak. "Well, damn, son. When you make an enemy, you do a proper job of it don't you? Go big or go home."

"We didn't know-" Travis protested.

"Relax, son." Hawthorne cut him off. "You're not the first person to piss off an entire race by mistake." Hawthorne then cast another knowing glance at Colonel Shepherd. "The Ancients alone know how many times we've had to clean up..."

It was then Shepherd's turn to cut off Hawthorne. "Let's stick to the subject, shall we colonel?"

The _Landry's_ commander smirked, but agreed to hold his peace.

"Thank you." Shepherd said, looking at both of the other men. "Look, the point is that Earth is now facing an attack by a hostile alien force." He said.

"So, what's priority here? We're still three or four days from Hebridan in hyperspace. My understanding is the guy we're supposed to be dealing with has already had almost three weeks to be up to whatever he's up to, and the more time we take, the more likely a problem it's going to be for everyone." Ellis reasoned.

Shepherd then addressed Travis again, "Travis, what we need to know is whether or not your people can handle this on their own."

"Maybe." Travis finally said, after looking at the blips on a display of the _Landry's_ sensor data. "But I don't know. That's an awful lot of ships, and I know a lot of our own combat ships are still deployed along the edge of Romulan space. Even if Starfleet pulled them all back right now, they wouldn't be able to get home in time to intercept them."

"What about allies? Didn't one of you say something to me about Earth being in it's own Coalition or Alliance with other worlds." Hawthorne asked.

"Yeah, but from what I understand, our allies' fleets are still recovering from the war too, and Klingon ships are warships first." Travis said.

In that moment, he tried reaching out with the Force, pushing his awareness out as far as he could, but it was either too far, or he just wasn't focused enough. The midichlorians in his cells were silent as to his friends' and shipmates' feelings.

"You okay, Lieutenant?" Ellis asked Travis.

Travis then realized he had his eyes closed, and he opened them. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? You looked like you blacked out or something there for a few minutes." Ellis pressed.

"No." Travis said. "I'm fine, I was just thinking." It was close enough to the truth.

Ellis crossed his arms, nodded at him, and then continued, "So, the question then becomes, how does this new data affect our current mission?"

"If Earth's under attack from overwhelming forces, we can't just fly on by." Shepherd said. "No when we can do something about it."

Hawthorne studied the Atlantis military commander's face for a minute, and then nodded his agreement. "We left our people behind once. Never again."

"Agreed." Ellis also said with a certain gravity.

"But you're only two more ships against sixty." Travis observed. "I'm sure Starfleet will be grateful for the help, but the odds will still be heavily against us."

Ellis and Hawthorne glance at each other again and then they both chuckled at once. "We'll see about that, Lieutenant." Ellis told him.

"Okay, so we go and join the fight. What about the guy we were sent to hunt?" Hawthorne asked.

Shepherd paused for a minute, and then said, "I think I've got an idea." He then addressed Colonel Hawthorne, "Bill, you've still got hyperspace capable puddle-jumpers on board, right?"

"Yeah, a full complement of six. Why?" Hawthorne asked.

"Mind if the lieutenant here and I borrow one for a few days?" Shepherd asked.

"Is that smart, Ronan? Thought you said this guy was as dangerous as a prior or more so. You're going to need back-up." Hawthorne asked him.

"You can come and pick us up when we're done." Shepherd said. "Nothing we haven't done before."

Travis tried to follow Shepherd's train of thought, "Wait, what's happening?" He asked.

"We're taking a road trip; just the two of us." Shepherd told him.

"Take a couple of marines with you, Colonel, and round out the ops team." Hawthorne. "Dex and Imaghan are good men."

"Fine." Shepherd agreed. To Travis he said, "Go pack your lightsaber and some reading material. The puddle-jumper's pretty cramped and boring."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 _The hurricane metaphor feels more and more appropriate_ , Archer thought to himself as he manned his Captain's chair. The forward viewscreen was filled at the moment with a display of Earth's solar system, and yellow dots too sparsely scattered across it marking where the other Starfleet and Coalition vessels were deployed. Sets of broken red lines indicated possible trajectories of the incoming fleet.

New orders had come in within the last hour for most of the fleet to pull back to Earth orbit to form a shield around the human homeworld. _Enterprise_ however was not among those ships so ordered. The older NX class ships, not being as well armed or armored as the more battle minded Ares class ships developed during the recent Romulan war, were left out in the field as "front line scouts" to provide sensor data on the trajectory and heading of the invading alien fleet. They had been ordered not to engage the Klingons if at all possible, but to fall back to Earth once the Klingons had passed their position.

"As if any of us would have a choice." Archer said to himself. One ship against dozens of birds of prey? That was suicide. Even three ships wouldn't last more than a few minutes at best.

The mood among the other crewmen on the bridge was tense and after a weeks worth of patrol people were beginning to snap at each other. It was bound to happen sooner or later, Archer knew. Everyone understood their job, and the stakes involved, but the waiting was almost intolerable. Archer himself would have preferred to just get it over with.

"Sensor contact, Captain!" Lieutenant Malcolm Reed exclaimed, and Archer's stomach tightened as he jumped to his feet.

"Reed alert!" Archer gave the order activating the combat readiness mode named for his tactical officer who came up with it. The command automatically activated the hull shielding polarization provided and brought the weapon systems online. "The Klingons?" He asked, looking to his tactical officer.

"Unknown class of vessel. It's only two ships, sir." Reed told him, his voice concerned and confused. "I don't understand, it's like they just appeared out of nowhere!"

"Are they in visual range?" Archer asked.

"Yes, sir. Two hundred kilometers off starboard." Malcolm responded.

"On screen." Archer said, and the sensor map on the forward viewscreen was replaced by a image of two vessels easily two or three times the size of Archer's own ship. They were shaped somewhat like long coppery cetaceans, except for the long rectangular structures both ships sported on their port and starboard flanks that looked suspiciously like hanger decks.

"Have they armed weapons, Malcolm?" Archer asked.

"I'm not sure but I don't think so, sir. But if they did, I'm not sure how much we could do about it. Sensors are indicating large numbers of smaller heavily armed craft being carried by them, and what look like massive amounts of torpedo ordinance as well as dozens of what look like beam weapon turrets. Whoever they are, they're armed to the teeth." Malcolm responded.

Archer thought for a split second, then he said, "Hoshi, hail them on all channels."

"Aye, sir." Hoshi responded. "Channels are open, sir."

"Alien vessel, this is the Earth starship _Enterprise_. You are in Coalition of Planets space. Please identify yourselves." Archer said, giving as much authority as he could to his voice.

After a minute, a baritone, no nonsense military like voice sounded over the bridge speakers, "Earth starship _Enterprise_ , this is the Atlantis Coalition warship..." the voice paused for a brief second and then continued, " _Enterprise,_ Colonel Lionel Ellis, commanding. Do you have visual communication capabilities?"

"Yes." Archer said, then gave the signal to put the video information being transmitted on screen.

The image which came up was that of a bald man clearly of African descent in a black jumpsuit uniform nearly identical to the tactical suit Colonel Shepherd had worn. The name "Ellis" was written clearly across the chest. An insignia comprised of a white winged horse inside of an inverted "V" with a circle at the apex graced the man's right shoulder. A circular patch with a field of stars and boxy alien script was the left. A small silver brooch of a bird of prey with a shield as its body and arrows in its talons was smartly fixed to the man's uniform collar.

"With whom am I speaking?" Ellis asked.

Eyebrows went up all over the bridge as surprise etched itself over the Captain's face as the realization of who the newcomers were broke over him.

"Jonathan Archer, Captain of the _Enterprise."_ Archer finally responded. "Colonel Shepherd didn't tell us we had a sister ship in the Pegasus galaxy."

Ellis nodded and continued. "Some military traditions don't die out." He said. "The vessel immediately to our starboard is the Atlantis Coalition warship _General Landry_ , Colonel William Hawthorne commanding. Captain Archer, now that our introductions are out of the way, we've been tracking fifty eight heavily armed alien battle cruisers that we believe to be hostile on a direct course for Earth. According to our instruments, at their current course and speed, they are twenty hours behind us as we speak."

"We're aware of them." Archer confirmed.

"Your officer, a Lieutenant Mayweather I believe, informed us they might be pretty tough customers for you. If you're willing to accept it, then the governor of Atlantis has authorized us to assist in whatever capacity necessary in the defense of Earth." Ellis told him.

Archer looked to the rest of his bridge crew with a huge smile on his face and then looked back at Colonel Ellis's more serious expression. "The more the merrier." He told him, hope beginning to spread throughout the bridge.

Incense hung heavy in the air as Torak knelt in front of the small shrine. A golden image of Kahless the Unforgettable stood triumphantly before him. The salt and pepper haired Klingon priest's eyes appeared to almost have rolled back into his head. His voice sounded otherworldly as he continued the ancient chant to the revered Emperor.

The High Council had betrayed the faith and code of honor left behind by the great Emperor, Torak had been certain of it. Every communications station in the empire had received the beacon's message of the Earthlings' unforgivable transgression against the Emperor and those who honored his name, but what did the High Council do? Nothing.

He had gone to the capitol and demanded a crusade be launched against the petaqmey immediately upon receiving the message.

"The Empire doesn't mobilize the fleet every time a tera'ngan petaq tramples the grass, Torak." He had been told, and by the Chancellor of the Empire no less!

But the families of several of the Great and Minor Houses were less sacrilegious than their chancellor. Outraged, they had given over command of many of the ships under their own personal command for the crusade. Together, they would restore the honor of the Klingon way. And then, once the tera'ngan vermin were extinguished, Torak would then turn them on Chancellor Markag and his house. Then perhaps a Klingon worthy of Kahless might assume the chancellor's mantle.

The crew on the bridge of the D-4 warship had informed him that they would be reaching the human star system within the hour, and he had retreated to his cabin to seek wisdom and guidance from the Emperor's spirit for the forthcoming glorious battle.

 _There is no honor in this_.

 _What?_ The thought jolted him out of his meditation. _Where did that nonsense come from?_

He cleared his mind and focused on the image of the Emperor again.

 _The humans are like foolish babes. There is no honor in their slaughter._

The voice came to him again in his mind, and he tried again to shove it far from him. _The petaqmey have no honor and deserve to be slaughtered for that reason alone_. He argued with his mind. _We are Klingon. We will force them to fear and respect our warrior's hearts_.

 _The wind doesn't respect a fool, Torak_.

"The humans are barely a light breeze. We'll see who's the fool." Torak responded out loud.

The voice was silent after that.

"Bridge to Torak." A gravelly voice said over the speakers in his quarters, and Torak stood up.

"Go ahead." The priest responded.

"We're within the boundaries of Earth's star system and approaching a large gas giant planet. Sensors indicate a single human battle cruiser in orbit." The voice replied.

"Prepare to drop out of warp." Torak ordered. "And arm all weapons."

"It was just as I thought. I told you he would not listen. The false image he has created of me in his mind has darkened his reason to insanity." The ascended being spoke to the other present as they both continued to watch the delusional priest make his way to the bridge of the battle cruiser. "My people have fallen far from the ways of honor I taught them." The impression he gave was that of sadness, perhaps almost grief. If he had been corporal, he might have shaken his head incredulously.

"Thank you for trying, Kahless." The other ascended being told him. "Any attempt at stopping this was worth the effort."

If he were corporal, Kahless would have wordlessly nodded his assent. His mood became pensive and thoughtful.

"I fear for my people, Daniel Jackson. Ascended or not, I am Klingon, and my heart remains in their service." He expressed this proudly and unashamedly. "And they are still my people. I fear what they are becoming. They have lost the joy in their warrior's hearts, and it has only been replaced by blood lust and anger. Warfare must enrich the spirit or it is pointless. They have forgotten that the true battle is in the heart first. The Klingon who loses this battle is no warrior, much less a Klingon. Soon, there will be no true Klingons left." He paused, and then added. "Sometimes I think the Ancient One had the right idea, Daniel Jackson." Kahless told him. "Perhaps one day soon I may have to keep my word and return to Boreth lead my people again."

A profound respect for the alien yet fellow ascended being rose up within Daniel. He understood now what their fellow mentor, Oma Desala, had seen in him to lead him to this existence in spite of the dangers involved which such a personality as his. To this day, the warrior inspired a powerful belief in himself among his people which in turn gave him to be one of the more powerful among the ascended. It took a great heart, and a great humility, to not abuse it as he could have.

"The Others will try and stop you." He reminded the former emperor, though not disagreeing with the great warrior's heart.

"To Grethor with the Others. They use the excuse of non-interference so much that they nearly let the galaxy burn, or do you forget? I remember well. Only you and Oma had the courage to stand up and fight as true warriors, Daniel Jackson. She remains in glorious combat for eternity, and I honor her for that. She made me remember who I was as well, and what I should have done." Kahless's tone then became quiet and questioning. "What good is such a rule if everything good in the universe is destroyed by it?" He might have spat.

Daniel had no answer for him, as he had often asked himself the same question.

"The Ancient One found a way around them. Perhaps I may too. It will require a great strategy, and the proper timing. I must think on it, and wait for the right moment, my friend." Kahless continued. He then asked, "What will you do now?"

"The only thing any of us can do." Daniel replied cryptically.

Kahless seemed to pick up on his meaning, and he said, "Good luck. Fight with honor, Daniel Jackson. In the end, our honor is all we have." And then he was gone.

Fifty eight Klingon ships dropped out of warp near a blue gas giant to meet the lone Earth vessel in high orbit that many if not most of the Klingon captains knew by its ignominious reputation if not by sight.

"Archer's ship." Commander Ketlor said with a toothy grin as he observed the alien markings on the hull. Duras had been a kinsman to his sister's husband. Today, the honor of their house would be avenged.

Ketlor looked forward to it.

"What was that?" The priest, the leader of this "crusade" who stood next to Ketlor's command seat mumbled.

"I know that ship. It is commanded by the human mercenary who escaped Rura Penthe." Ketlor responded.

"Then today, a criminal will be brought to justice, and honor shall be restored to the Empire." The old priest replied pompously.

"Sir, we're being hailed by the Earth ship." Ketlor's communications officer reported.

"Ignore them, they are not worth listening to." The priest said.

 _Oh no. Not on my ship you old fool._ "Belay that Karg. Put it on screen. Let's hear what the petaq has to say before we reduce his ship to slag." Ketlor told him, then turning to the priest, "This is _my_ ship, priest. I command the warriors here. Remember that." He growled, baring his fangs for good measure.

The old fool shrank back slightly as the image of a weak looking, pink skinned human in a blue child's pajamas came on the forward viewscreen.

"Klingon vessels, you are in violation of sovereign Earth space. Turn back now or be destroyed." The human told them with a serious look on his face.

Ketlor's face went blank for a moment. Then he laughed. He laughed so hard he might have cried if he had tear ducts. When he could compose himself, he replied, "I like you human! You have gall and a warrior's heart! It might be an honor to kill you if there weren't so many of us." He then ordered Karg to close the channel.

"Signal the fleet," He ordered, still trying not to laugh more, "Arm torpedoes. Destroy the fool's ship and let's be on our way. I'm sure there are more like this to kill before we reach their world."

This might not be a total waste of his time after all. He was always up for a bit of light entertainment.

"Sir, look!" Another warrior shouted, pointing at the viewscreen.

Ketlor's attention was pulled back to the display. The picture on the viewscreen changed as two other ships which Ketlor did not recognize materialized from nowhere above and below the Earth vessel.

"What are those?" Ketlor asked, his smile dimming.

"Unknown vessels, sir. They've raised shields around themselves and the Earth ship. Sensors can't penetrate them." Came back the report.

"It's only two more ships." The priest said, reminding him.

It was a surprise, though. Ketlor didn't like surprises in combat. But the fool was right. It was only two more ships that would soon be slag under the combined firepower of their fleet.

" _Bakh!_ " He gave the order to fire all weapons.

"You know, from this perspective, the explosions are actually really quite lovely." Malcolm commented. "I don't think I've ever thought about it before, but it really is quite beautiful."

The scene felt surreal to Archer as the forward viewscreen's display was filled with images of dozens of antimatter detonations and phase cannon fire against the blue tinged energy shields protecting the three human vessels. It should have been terrifying. They should have been ripped to shreds and melted slag by now. They should have at least felt a bump or two.

"Archer to Ellis." He called out, opening a channel to the Atlantis ship's commander.

"Ellis here, Captain." Came the ship's commander's response.

"How're your shields holding up under this?" Archer asked.

"We're sitting pretty at ninety-nine percent shield strength, Captain. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks." Came Ellis's response.

The bombardment went on for the next ten minutes as the three ships just sat there, protected by the energy shields. Several of the Klingon ships attempted to circle around and hit the shields from different angles assuming that if the forward shields were at full strength then there would be hardly any protection against the aft and sides.

They were wrong.

"So what do you think, Captain? How long until they run out of ordinance?" Came Hawthorne's voice over the channel. "They seem to be intent on expending all of it on us." He then added, "They must really not like you."

Archer looked towards Malcolm for an answer with a questioning look.

Malcolm looked at his own sensor data and said, "It's hard to tell, sir, through all the detonations, and the Atlantis ships' shield technology, but my best educated guess is that they've expended most of their torpedo ordinance on us already."

Archer opened the channel again and informed Hawthorne and Ellis.

"Yeah, that's what our sensors are telling us too. They should be just about exhausted. You want to give them a call again? Give them a chance to retreat?" Hawthorne asked.

"I'll make the call now." Archer agreed. "They've still got their beam weapons. How are your shields looking now after all that?"

"Oh, we're down to about eighty-five percent of shield strength. We've still got plenty of juice left in the power modules though. These guys aren't anything we can't manage." Hawthorne replied.

"Sir, all torpedoes have been expended!" The weapons officer reported.

"Why haven't they returned fire? What kind of cowards are they?" The fool priest said.

 _Cowards don't just sit there and take the pounding as if it were just a light rain you old fool!_ Ketlor thought to himself, but said nothing. He was beginning to have serious doubts about this "easy conquest" Torak had talked the leaders of his house into.

"Sir, the humans are hailing us again." Karg reported.

Ketlor didn't hesitate. "Put him on screen." He said.

He was far from laughing now.

"Klingon vessels, this is your last warning. Return peaceably to Klingon space, or be destroyed." The human said.

Ketlor didn't respond right away. _They've already proven they can take whatever we throw at them. What does it matter how weak their weapons are if we can't even get past their shields? It will be a slaughter, but it will be our slaughter._ He thought to himself.

"Fool human! You invite your own slaughter at the hands of the Klingon Empire!" Torak screamed in defiance at the screen.

Before Ketlor could stop him, he ordered the channel closed and told the weapons officer to fire disruptors at the Earth ships.

Before the conscious thought appeared in his mind, a Dk'Tagh dagger appeared in Ketlor's hand and it was thrust upwards into the old priest's heart. Thick pink fluid spilled out of the wound as the priest's eyes opened wide with shock before his body slumped to the floor.

"Kahless damn you to Grethor, you fool. You've killed all of us." Ketlor spat at the corpse.

Bolts of green energy shot forth from the cannons of the combined Klingon warships attempting to penetrate the energy shields of their opponents. They met with no more success than the photonic torpedoes did.

Bright points of light like huge fireflies began to fly from the two unknown human ships in all directions towards the Klingon warships like a swarm. They were so unlike anything the Klingons had ever seen that many of the weapons officers didn't know how to respond to them.

Then the swarm slammed into the first warship treating the Klingons ship's own shields as though they didn't exist. Within seconds the ship was torn to shreds and exploded. Strangely, unlike any normal ordinance, the swarm itself seemed virtually unaffected by its collisions.

Then the swarm moved on to two more ships. Reducing them to slag it continued from ship to ship working its way from the closest to the farthest ships from its point of origin.

Those few Klingon commanders farthest away and towards the rear of the fleet saw what was happening and gave the order to go to warp, retreating back to Klingon space. None in the vanguard of the attack force survived.

The invasion was over without Archer's ship having to fire a single shot.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Shuttlecraft were not meant for three day trips. If he hadn't thought this way before, Travis was now convinced of it. The seven meter or so long, cylindrical "puddlejumper" as Ronan had called it was no exception to the rule. Especially where toileting facilities were concerned.

There weren't any. From the way that Travis could see the puddlejumper was designed, there weren't meant to be any either. It felt like one of Starfleet's shuttlepods, meant for trips measured in hours and kilometers, not days and lightyears.

They were all men on board, and military men to boot, but three days of doing your business in a glorified bucket in the back of the shuttle in full view of the other three passengers was just a little too much military efficiency for Travis to appreciate. He found it even more disturbing that the glorified bucket had its own regular storage bin under one of the rear jump seats. He loved flying the shuttlepods, but not for so long that nature started calling.

When without warning one of the marines had first flipped up the seat and pulled out the bucket after six hours of flight time, faced away from the others and started emptying his bladder of whatever beverage he had consumed recently, Travis had asked Ronan, "Do you guys normally travel in one of these things for this long?"

"Not usually, no." The colonel had answered from his pilot's seat. "The original puddlejumpers were meant by the Ancients to be gateships." He had pointed to the panel of buttons that sat in between the pilot's and "passenger's" seat. There were thirty nine hexagonal buttons, each imprinted with a stargate coordinate symbol. "That's why they're designed in the shape of a cylinder and the external stabilizer pods retract into the body. The idea to put hyperdrives in them for FTL travel on their own belonged to one of Jennifer's ancestors over a hundred years ago. Funny thing is, I think I can count on one hand how many times my team and I have had to use the hyperdrive in a puddlejumper and I think those were six hour trips tops."

The four men slept in shifts stretching out across the cushioned jump seats which lined the rear two thirds of the craft. There was a closable partition in between the rear section and the "cockpit" which afforded some privacy during those times that required it, but it wasn't much.

After the second day, Travis realized what was really getting to him about being in the puddlejumper. He wasn't the one doing the flying. And that left him a lot more time to think about what was coming. It was like they had taken the bigger warship and shrank it down to the size and shape of a tin can. Except this time he didn't even have the distraction of sparring with Ronan, and meditation wasn't the easiest thing to accomplish when there were three other men who were constantly with you. One of the marines had pulled out a deck of playing cards and invited him to join in, but you could only play so many games of poker before it began to get old.

When Ronan wasn't flying one of the marines with pilot's training took over. Travis would have offered, but the controls were completely alien to him. Ronan explained to him that almost all of the puddlejumper's functions were controlled by thought. Running through hyperspace on an urgent mission to deal with a supercharged bad guy wasn't the best of times to learn something new. Ronan also told him the old, original puddlejumpers also had some kind of a genetic lock on them. Unless you were blessed with the right DNA, the lights wouldn't even come on for you.

"My great grandfather spent a lot of mission hours in the Ancients' jumpers." Ronan had said. "He was one of the few pilots with the right DNA and amount of control to really fly them the way they were meant. There were times he even piloted the city of Atlantis itself." There was a certain amount of pride in his voice when he talked about his family, and Travis could feel from him a certain amount of expectation he never thought he would live up to.

Travis tried to imagine what it might have been like to try and pilot something the size of a city like the one he had seen, and that only with your mind. It seemed almost beyond him. But then he reminded himself about the kinds of things a Jedi could do through the Force; some of the kinds of things he himself had done through the Force.

 _Size matters not_. Travis reminded himself. That had been one of Yoda's most basic teachings about the Force. _It's not you who's doing anything. It's the Force that's doing all the heavy lifting. You just gotta be open to it and listen._ Maybe the Ancients of Atlantis somehow figured out how to incorporate that into their technology too.

A holographic sensor display popped up suddenly in front of where Travis and Ronan sat in the pilot's seats, it showed several stars and planets labeled in both English and the same boxy script Travis had seen elsewhere on Atlantis and the _Landry_.

"We're coming up on Hebridan." Ronan said. "Sensors show the stargate's still operational and transmitting its updates."

Within minutes, the puddlejumper dropped out of Hyperspace and the strange aurora like space around them which had been Travis' view through the forward window for three days reverted back to the familiar field of stars against the eternal night of space. Dominating the star filled expanse was a beautiful blue and green world which might have been Earth's twin sister.

"Engaging the cloak." Ronan reported again, though Travis didn't notice any obvious changes inside the small craft. "Just in case there's anyone down there with the tech to see us up here."

They approached the planet from the night side, and they could clearly see masses of lights sparsley scattered across the surface, though not as many as Travis would have expected from a spacefaring capable civilization.

"Didn't someone say these people used to be more technologically advanced than Earth was a hundred and sixty years ago?" Travis asked. "It looks like there are cities down there, but not nearly what I would have expected."

"According to the historical database they were conquered by the Ori. From what I remember in my history classes about them, the Ori had a policy of genocide against those who didn't accept them as gods." Ronan told him. He then said with a solemn irony, "I guess most of the Hebrideans at the time weren't the religious type."

After another minute or so, he brought up the sensor display again and said, "Okay, so the stargate is here according to the jumper's sensors." He pointed to a place on a larger southern continent. "It's been almost a month since this guy gated here, right?"

"Yeah, which means he could be anywhere on the planet by now, if he's still here." Travis said.

"Let's not call the planet Sithless just yet, buddy." Ronan said. "Can't you use the Force to track him?"

"Maybe," Travis said, "but there's every chance he'll sense me if I do and we lose the element of surprise. I don't know what he's capable of. He may already know we're here."

"Right." Ronan said, and then looked as if he were thinking about something for a minute. Then the forward display immediately changed to readouts which Travis couldn't make heads or tails of.

"What's all that?" The Starfleet officer asked.

"All this tells me about what kinds of power generation are in use down there, how much power is being used, etc. The sensors also detect what kinds of materials are used in building construction. In short, it's telling me roughly where they're at technologically. And if we know that, we know how far away from the stargate this guy could have gone in about a month." Ronan explained.

"Yeah, okay. Commander T'Pol uses some similar methods when _Enterprise_ is orbiting a new world. What's it saying? Where are they at?" Travis asked.

"Give me a second. Jennifer's usually the one that does this." Ronan told him, studying the readouts. "Well, I'm not picking up any power signatures that suggest anything advanced like antimatter or fusion technology. All of the energy spikes are still pretty low output, fossil fuel burning power plants maybe? I don't think they're running any tech that's as power intensive as you or I might be used to. It looks like there's a decent amount of particulates in their atmosphere too." The Atlantis colonel pointed to several different sets of numbers on the display as he explained. "I'm pretty sure that means air pollution from industrial output and maybe transports, especially concentrated around the population centers like it is. If I was to make an educated guess I'd say maybe late nineteenth century to early twentieth century Earth if I remember right? I'm not picking up any vessels in the air, so he'd probably have to rely on surface transport of some kind if he's not walking."

 _And these people used to travel the stars too_ , Travis thought to himself solemnly. _Is this what Yoda wanted to prevent?_

"Still, though, you can travel a pretty good distance in a month with just ground transport, even in something that burns fossil fuels." Travis observed.

"Well, we've got to start looking somewhere." Ronan replied. "My vote is to land near the stargate and start checking out the locals. Even if he's a couple hundred kilometers away from it now, he had to have hitched a ride from someone who still remembers."

"If they survived the encounter." Travis added.

"Only one way to find out." Ronan responded, and he set a course for the southern continent.

The stargate on Hebridan stood on the edge of a city which might have, at one time, resembled the San Francisco or Paris Travis knew on Earth. Tall towers in the nearby city and sprawling rails traveling outwards to parts unknown which looked to be magnetically driven still stood as a testament to what the Hebridean civilization had been.

But signs of the present intruded on whatever the Hebridean past might have been. Around the city stood a stone and earthen wall which rose up easily ten or fifteen meters from the ground. The rails were and remained silent and empty. In the darkness of the impending dawn, Travis could see that what might have been power cables were snapped or cut in several places along them. Other bits of damage and vandalism could be seen as well. Only a few lights could be seen in the city's towers and buildings, and he couldn't tell if the orange glows he saw in the buildings were small fires or primitive electric lighting from that distance. The air held a sour, dirty odor to it. Having spent most of his life in artificially controlled environments aboard spacecraft, Travis nearly gagged and reflexively almost tried not to breath. He had to employ what meditative Force techniques Yoda taught him in order to convince his lungs to admit the foul smelling atmosphere.

Overhead, Hebridan's moon gave off a pale, soft silvery light which did far more to help the team to find their way than the occasional dim orange street lamp they encountered. Their first stop after setting down in what looked to be an abandoned cluster of maintenance buildings was the stargate itself.

Travis carried a kind of plasma based pistol in a holster on his hip which would only stun a person as long as you only hit them once with it. Attached to the holster's belt was a ring and a clip that Travis suspected was originally meant for a flashlight but which served well in securing his lightsaber. The other three men were armed with the same kind of pistols as well as projectile based assault rifles, knives, and grenades.

One device that Ronan handed to Travis before they left the jumper looked like a small, green crystal brooch.

"Here, put this on. It's thought activated." He told him.

"What is it?" Travis had asked.

"It's a personal shield. We produce them on Atlantis for our military forces. When you want it on, focus on the need to be protected, and it should work." Ronan told him as Travis fixed it to the left breast of his black jumpsuit. "It's got a limited power supply, but I've seen them absorb hits from one of our own drone weapons before."

Ronan then fixed another one to his own tactical uniform. Travis saw the other men do the same, adding them to the already imposing array of tactical gear.

"I guess you folks have to do a lot more fighting back in Pegasus than we do." He observed.

"Unlike your Starfleet, Travis, our primary mission isn't exploration. Virtually the entire Pegasus galaxy was already mapped and explored by the Ancients who built Atlantis. We already know who and what is out there. Our job is keeping the peace and ensuring the survival of the human worlds against threats like the Wraith by any means necessary with every resource and technology at our disposal." He replied.

"We've had to defend ourselves from more than our share of enemies too." Travis responded, remembering the Xindi mission, the Romulans, the Klingons, and every other hostile race they'd encountered. "But Captain Archer's always found that trying to talk things out works better in most circumstances."

"You've only gone, what? Fifty light years from Earth? You've probably visited a hundred worlds, maybe? There are at least thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of habitable planets in this galaxy, Travis. If I remember from my history lessons, the Milky Way has had its own share of bad guys that just can't be negotiated with. One even tried to wipe out all life in the galaxy just so he could recreate it in his own image. The Earth you know hasn't even encountered half of what they're going to as they go further out into this galaxy." Ronan said. He then added, "It's hard to 'talk things out' with an alien race that masquerades as gods and culls human populations like cattle to feed on them. Some people out there just can't be reasoned with, and you've got to do what you need to ensure your own people's survival."

Travis chewed on the colonel's words as they approached the stargate, about three kilometers from where they set the jumper down.

The great metal ring was situated above an ornate stone and marble platform in what might have once been a public square or park. Around it, lamp posts had been placed, though they were dark and might have been before the fall of the original civilization. It could have been an artistic piece, or a monument to some long forgotten achievement. Ten meters away stood the control pedestal.

Their bigger concern were the two men standing on either side of the stargate. Both were decidedly human. Each held a long staff, tipped with two long flat pincers, in their right hands. Both wore helmets and armor that might have seemed more appropriate in a medieval history book than an alien planet.

The four stopped about thirty meters from the gate and ducked behind an old collection of stone statuary and pedestals. Ronan pulled out what looked to Travis like binoculars and carefully put his head out to get a better look. The two marines guarded to the sides and behind them.

Travis reached out gingerly, unobtrusively with the Force, allowing his awareness to expand to the two men guarding the gate. There was something not right about them. They felt… cold. Dark somehow. It was a feeling that he had encountered before, back under Cheyenne Mountain.

"I don't like this, Ronan." Travis told him. "They don't feel right."

"What do you mean?" The colonel asked.

"There's something wrong with them in the Force. I think it's what Master Yoda called a 'disturbance'. They feel dark. Like they're connected to the dark side somehow." Travis told him.

"Can you be any more specific?" Ronan asked?

"No, sorry. I kind of got the abridged course in being a Jedi. Both times." Travis responded.

Ronan looked at him questioningly, and then decided he would have to ask what Travis meant later.

"Alright, so we don't go up and just ask for directions to the big bad guy. Any ideas?" Ronan asked.

Then a blast of energy hit the statue just above their heads. They both turned to see the two guards now approaching their position, staff weapons down in a threatening manner.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"How'd they know we were here?!" Ronan shouted to Travis as pulses of plasma fired from his rifle. The two marines turned their own weapons on the medievally armored enemy soldiers as well, but it didn't seem to help.

Travis noticed a green shimmer of energy snugly envelope the two marines. Ronan looked back and noticed it too. He shouted at them, "There's only two of them! Don't get careless and use up all the power on your shields!"

The two marines nodded, and the green shimmer died.

Almost as if sensing what path Shepherd's plasma shots would follow, the two hostile soldiers guards dodged and weaved around them until they took refuge behind similar statuary to the Atlantis team on the opposite side of the ruined courtyard as they continued to fire their own energy blasts from their pincer pronged staff weapons.

"Travis, use those freaky abilities you've got and tell me what's going on!" Ronan shouted again as the two soldiers continued to evade the combined shots from three experienced and heavily trained marksmen. "How the hell are they moving faster than the plasma bursts?"

Travis's gut knotted as he felt the answer to both questions.

"It's the Force." Travis answered back in an even tone. "I think what I'm feeling from them is the dark side."

"What?! Oh hell!" Ronan said as the implications of Travis's statement hit him. He saw back on the desert world what a person who could use the Force could do in a fight against otherwise superior opponents. "Alright, new plan. We'll cover you, but these jokers are yours!" He then shouted to the two marines to provide cover fire, but not to attempt to engage up close.

The two marines raised their eyebrows at him, but both complied in a professional manner with, "Yes, sir. No up close and personal."

"Right." Travis said, more to himself than anyone else. "They're my problem to deal with."

He reminded himself, _This is why I'm here. This is what we do._

And then, once more, Travis closed his eyes and immersed himself into the Force. Immediately the awareness of all living things around him exploded outwards. The hostile guards once again felt like cold, dark blotches against the warmth and peace of the living Force around him.

Then Travis sensed something else and zeroed in on the direction of the two guards. Through the Force he could just see one of the guards pulling out a small box from somewhere under his armor and speaking into it.

 _He's calling for reinforcements._ Travis knew, and felt several, similar dark splotches of living Force coming at them from the direction of one of the buildings of the ruined city to the southeast.

"We've got bigger problems than these guys, Ronan!" Travis told him. "They just called for back-up! More just like them, maybe five or ten coming from the southeast. They'll be here in a few minutes."

"Damn!" Ronan said then he looked around him for any place they might possibly retreat to. Spying another building about thirty meters to the west, he asked Travis, "Can you keep them busy for us?"

Travis thought he understood. This was a fight he might win, but they couldn't. This was a Jedi's job, not theirs.

Travis pulled the lightsaber from his belt, flipped the switch and it ignited with a snap-hiss. "Go. I'll cover you."

Then turning away from the Atlantis men, Travis launched himself with his legs into the air some fifteen meters as his jump carried him in an arc over and behind the two enemy guards. His lightsaber came down to meet their staves as they turned them towards him, but the metal of the staves couldn't stand up to the intense heat of the lightsaber and it cut right through them, rendering the weapons useless. The next things its glowing arc cut through were the dull metal breastplates of their armor. The lightsaber flicked back around and their helmets came off with their heads still inside them.

Then more blasts of energy came for him and he darted out of the way, flipping to his side his lightsaber came up and caught the blasts deflecting them back towards the men who fired them. One of them, not aware of it fast enough fell as the energy blast hit his metal breastplate and punched through it.

The other nine soldiers fanned out and continued to fire on the energy blade wielding intruder, bright blue bolts of plasma shooting from the end of their staves. It took all of Travis's focus to anticipate and avoid the armored soldiers shots, and a few grazed the material of his black jumpsuit along his left shoulder and legs.

They shouted at him, "Surrender now!"

Travis charged at them in response shouting in response, "Not on your life!" He knew he was the only thing standing in between these dark side Force capable soldiers and Ronan's team.

Then Travis felt like someone had pulled the plug on him and he stumbled.

"What the…?" He said.

All of a sudden, just as he was about to make another leap towards the closest one he felt his connection to the Force just shut down completely, and he no longer sense where the next blast would come from.

Dazed and confused the next thing he saw before tripping and falling to his knees were the bright blue energy blasts coming from behind the armored soldiers and hitting their back armored plates. Each soldier fell where he stood, unable to get off another shot, until there were a total of twelve enemy corpses littering the courtyard.

Travis hit the ground ignominiously. His head felt fuzzy like he couldn't focus and he couldn't sense anything behind his five natural senses which were filled the smell and feel of dirty, unkempt paving stones.

"Clear!" Travis heard Ronan shout and he looked up wearily to see his friend and the other two marines, rifles in hand and ready.

The Atlantis colonel ran up and offered Travis his left hand, the right still on the grip of his rifle. "You didn't think we'd actually abandon you to these guys did you?" Ronan asked with a smirk on his face. Then he asked as Travis took his hand slowly, "You alright, buddy? You took a pretty good fall."

Ronan helped him to his feet gingerly, but the Jedi felt off balance and clumsy. It felt like someone had completely taken away all of his depth perception and messed with his inner ear.

"Yeah, I think so. What just happened?" He asked in confusion. "It felt like I went blind all of a sudden. It's like I've totally lost all contact with the Force."

The colonel unstrapped the black backpack he had been carrying, opened it up and pulled out a black metal disk about the size and shape of a frisbee or a discus. Lights blinked around it.

"What is that?" Travis asked.

"My ancestors dubbed it an 'Anti-Prior-Device', or A.P.D. for short. When they fought the Ori before, there were these religious leaders called priors that the Ori gave miraculous abilities to in order to fool people into worshiping them. The original stargate program developed these devices to neutralize the special abilities the Ori priors had. After seeing and hearing about the kinds of things you could do, and this Sith guy did, on a hunch, I had our boys back on Atlantis fashion one for me from old plans down in fabrication." Motioning towards the bodies on the ground, he said, "Looks like my hunch was right."

"You could have warned me." Travis said, rubbing his head.

"It's pretty short range, within five meters or so. I didn't want to take the chance one of them could have read your mind or mine and picked up on it." Ronan answered and then said, "Sorry, buddy, but I needed a distraction to use it, and I knew you'd have the best chance of any of us surviving long enough against them to get it close enough."

Ronan then passed his fingers over a particular set of lights on the device, and it went dark. Right away, Travis could feel his head clear and the awareness and warmth of the Force flooded back into him. "Wow." Was all he could say. "Master Yoda never said that could be done. That was actually a little scary. I never realized..."

"Maybe he didn't know it could be." Ronan replied, then noticing Travis was still a little shaken he asked again, "Hey, you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah… yeah, I mean I think so." Travis responded. "I just, I've never felt that way before. Maybe I was relying on the Force for a lot longer than I thought and I just didn't know it, or… or something." He told his friend.

"Yeah, maybe." Ronan said, concerned for his friend. "Right now though, we've got to get moving." Looking at the corpses, he then said, "Can't have anyone finding these, though."

He pulled out the energy hand weapon Travis had noticed before and motioned for the marines to do the same, he then started shooting the corpse closest to him with it, once, twice, and then a third time. On the third shot, the body was completely vaporized. The two marines followed suit. In a very short amount of time, all twelve bodies were gone.

Satisfied, he holstered his sidearm, and replaced the inert A.P.D. back in his backpack, saying,

"I've got to use this thing sparingly, so we've got to keep it off for as long as we can until we find our primary target. According to the records, the longer a prior was exposed to it, the more of a chance there was he could adapt and overcome it."

"Right." Travis said his voice betraying the relief he felt at the device being put away. "Good to know."

"Judging by what you told me about these guys, and how they evaded our weapons, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that our bad guy is close by." Ronan said, his voice taking on a serious, almost ominous qaulity. He obviously didn't like the conclusions he was coming to and he took them very seriously. "Someone's been teaching them this stuff."

Ronan then gestured towards the stone walled ruins in the distance, "Our best bet's probably the main city over there, behind the wall." He then looked up at the sky which was beginning to lighten with the impending dawn.

"Yeah." Travis agreed. "Let's get going."

The Jedi's mind however was still on how he had reacted to the activation of the A.P.D. as the four men moved out, following the tracks of the ruined monorail train system towards the ruined city.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The sun was above the horizon and the deep reds and purples of dawn had given way to orange and then a lightly clouded blue sky by the time the four men had drawn close to the medieval stone wall. The closer they got, the more Travis could see that it was made of chunks of concrete, stone, and whatever else the inhabitants could find all cemented together somewhat loosely with a hardened mud. The wall came up from the ground at a slight angle, and the team could see it was more of a high, steep mound surrounding the city than a wall built by architects or engineers. The mound-wall rose up about six or seven meters from the ground.

The main entry ways into the city from the direction they had approached were guarded by more, similarly armored soldiers with staff weapons like they had encountered near the stargate. Huge wooden gates set into metal frames had been swung open by those soldiers as the sun rose.

When they had still been at a distance, they found an abandoned three story building, similar to the old row houses that someone might still occasionally see in San Francisco, and climbed to the mostly level roof, ducking down behind a waist high safety wall which ran around the edge. There was a large metal box and what looked like two small storage sheds placed seemingly at random.

From the rooftop, Ronan observed the closest gated entry with his binoculars. Neither he nor Travis wanted to take the chance of the soldiers sensing another Force user, so Travis kept his own abilities reigned in to the surrounding two or three meters of their position as the Atlantis soldier scouted it out.

"You ever see any of the old post-apocalypse movies, Travis?" Ronan asked him, surveying the scene in front of them as the sunlight hit the surrounding area.

"No. Historical dramas aren't really my thing." Travis replied. "Although there was one a few year back that swept the Oscars."

Ronan stopped and paused for a minute, confused. _Oh, right._ He then realized. Nuclear apocalyptic scenarios hadn't been science fiction to those people who had remained on Earth after his ancestors had left. He decided to drop the subject, and then described the scene to the other men.

"I see at least six guards at what appears to be the main gate that the road leads up to. There appears to be some pretty heavy foot traffic, mostly coming out of the city to the surrounding area, but there's a few entering in with loaded horse carts… or what ever those animals are." In truth, the animals he saw looked a lot like a horse had gotten confused with an iguana one night. "The guards don't seem to be checking them. No. Wait."

Ronan watched as one of the guards lowered his staff weapon and without warning fired into one of the covered carts three times, causing it to burst into flames. Immediately, three human forms in flames jumped out of the cart and attempted to roll on the ground, but the guards fired again, and whoever they were stopped moving. Another guard fired an energy blast at the man who had been drawing the cart, and he dropped to the ground as well.

Ronan described what had just happened for the other men.

One of the marines remarked in response, "I guess that rules out the front door. What do we do, try to find an open window, sir?"

"Maybe." Ronan replied, thinking. "Let's get closer to the wall, away from the guards, and see what our options are."

As Ronan began to put his binoculars away, there came the quiet sound of something shifting or scraping against surface of the dirty rooftop. Immediately, Travis picked up on it, and extended his awareness.

Travis tapped Ronan's arm, then motioned for him to remain quiet by touching his finger to his own lips. He raised one finger and mouthed the words, "One person. Behind us and towards the right. Not a guard." He concluded the last by shaking his head. He hadn't gotten the same dark feeling from this new presence, but there was something...

Ronan nodded and motioned for Travis to check it out.

Silently, Travis backed up and towards a taller shed box, keeping the presence he felt in his awareness. He sensed a fear, but also a curiosity. There was also a kind of innocence about it. He was less than a meter from the presence behind the shed, and confident that it didn't know he was there. Not much farther, and...

Through the Force, Travis moved faster than a human eye might have seen and grabbed, catching what felt like a small arm and pulled the smaller person in front of him. Before the owner of the arm could cry out, he put his other hand around the owner's mouth which he found somewhere near his own stomach.

 _It's a kid._ Travis thought. A tangled mass of hair draped down his captive's back and he immediately thought, _It's a girl._

"Got you." He said, though quietly so as not to draw the attention of any of the guards that might be in the surrounding areas.

His captive panicked and struggled for a few seconds, and then she tried to clamp down on his hand with her teeth, but she couldn't get a grip against his palm.

"Hey, none of that now." Travis told his captive in a quiet, calm voice, turning her around so she could see his face. "Neither me nor my friends are going to hurt you. We just want to talk to you alright?" He then took his left hand from her arm and took his index finger and pressed it against his own lips, and then pointed towards the gate where the guards were.

The girl slowly nodded with understanding.

"Good. Okay then." Travis said to her, taking his hand away from her mouth. She remained silent, looking into his eyes. Her own eyes weren't frightened, but held a wary curiosity.

She looked to be maybe nine or ten years old. Her tangled hair was a dark brown, and she wore a torn pair of short pants and a dirty shirt that might have been either blue or green at one point in time, but now was so streaked with dirt and grime it was uneven shades of gray.

In all respects the girl looked human, but her dirt smeared face clearly betrayed some alien ancestry as well, with a slightly protruding forehead and cranial indentations, and exposed membranes for temples.

"What's your name?" He asked, trying not to be threatening.

"La'el." She answered simply, a distinct lack of trust apparent in her voice, "What's yours?"

"My name's Travis." He answered. "What are you doing up here all by yourself, La'el?"

The girl's blue-green eyes betrayed a childhood that had been cut so much shorter than it should have been. They were the eyes of an innocence lost; a child that had seen what no one should have.

"Dark soldiers don't bother with the dead houses." She answered. "No one comes here but half-breeds. But you're not a half breed like me."

"Half-breeds?" Travis asked her.

She studied his face before she answered, looking at him as though trying to peer into his soul. Travis felt something as she did it. A brief brush against his mind which surprised him. Then she answered his question.

"You and the other men feel different. You're not like us." She answered. "You're not from the city, are you?" She asked, gesturing towards the once gleaming towers surrounded by the wall.

"No." Travis answered honestly. "We're not."

Travis opened himself up further to the Force, trying to understand the girl. He sensed much pain that she had endured, much trauma in her young life, and an anger directed towards the armored men at the gate.

The four men needed a way into the city, and the front door wasn't going to cut it, Travis knew. They needed to find a way around the soldiers, which meant they needed someone who knew their way around.

Travis settled on the truth again."We're looking for someone. Maybe you can help us find him."

"Who are you looking for?" She asked.

"A really bad guy that hurt a lot of people where I'm from. We're trying to stop him from hurting anyone else. We think he came through the stargate, the big ring over..." Travis tried to explain.

She cut him off, "You've come looking for Lord Teljens, haven't you?"

 _Bingo_. Travis thought.

"Maybe we are." He told her, filing the unfamiliar name away in his mind. "Let me introduce you to my friends over here and we can talk about it." Travis motioned to the other three men on the roof top.

"You won't be safe here. Not from him." She warned him. "No one is."

"Is there somewhere around here that's any safer than this that we could talk?" Travis asked. "Somewhere where the guards don't know about maybe?"

He wasn't surprised when she nodded, and, glancing in the direction of the soldiers guarding the gate, she then said, "Come with me. Your friends can come too."

A single strip of soft white light running the length of the ceiling continued to provide illumination to the small underground room into which La'el had led the four men. The room itself was no more than five meters by five meters.

They had reached the room after an hour of traversing tunnels dimly lit with similar light strips which the girl had led them through by way of an unassuming access door in the building upon which they had stationed themselves. Travis had guessed they might be thirty or forty meters underground from the surface above. There was the slight odor of rotting meat in the air, and a certain odd feeling through the Force that Travis couldn't shake, and didn't understand.

In the room was a table large enough for four adults with two broken metal chairs nearby, and a short yellowish sofa upon which lay a woolen blanket and a dirty pillow. On the walls of the room, posters, signs, and faded handwritten notes in a language unreadable to him, though seeming vaguely familiar, decorated the room sparsely. To Travis, it had the feel of an employee's break room.

La'el sat on the sofa, wrapping the blanket around her legs and hugging her pillow close to her chest protectively. She watched the two marines as they stood near the broken door which led into the room from the tunnel they had just come from.

"Dark soldiers don't ever come down here." She told them. "That's why it's safe."

"I believe you." Ronan responded lightly, taking his rifle off of his shoulder and setting it down. It was shortly followed by his backpack. "I'd be lost down here myself." He said as he sat down on the floor. He then motioned to the two marines to follow suit.

"How long have you lived down here, La'el?" Ronan asked.

"I don't remember. A long time. Mother brought me down here when I was little, after father died." La'el responded, hugging the pillow tighter.

"Where is your mother? Can we talk to her?" Travis asked, though he could feel the answer as a wave of sadness radiated off of her.

"Dark soldiers shot her because she wouldn't read the book." She said, her flat tone belying the anger and grief Travis felt through the Force. "Just like father."

"What book?" Ronan asked, though there was a look of recognition on his face.

"The book. The only book the soldiers will ever let anyone read." She answered, as if that explained everything. Then she looked at Travis's still clueless expression. How could he not know? "The Book of Origin." She said, a little exasperated.

"Did Lord Teljens tell them to do that?" Travis asked, still not understanding the reference.

"No. But they got worse after he came. I heard he did things like the book says the Priors of the Ori could do. He even shoots lightning from his hands. He started teaching them how to do stuff like he could. I heard he told the people in the city he needed worthy soldiers in his army for when he goes to join the gods. They got faster, and they're better shots than before he came. They shot more of my friends after he came. Cleared out the city of all of us. Now it's just all humans there. All humans that follow everything he says. They don't like half-breeds. They call us demons because we're not all human like they are. Like you are." La'el told them, eying them.

"Yeah, well we're not like them." Ronan told her. "We just want to find him and make him stop."

"I've got good friends that aren't human at all." Travis told her, thinking of Doctor Phlox and T'Pol. "They're like family to me."

"Father wasn't all human." La'el told them. "Mother said he was mostly Sirrakan. Lots more than she even. I don't know. I was too little."

"La'el, do you know how to find Lord Teljens?" Ronan asked. "So we can make him stop what he's doing?"

"How?" She asked. "How could you make him stop?"

Ronan looked to Travis and then back to La'el. "We have ways to do it, but we've got to be sneaky about it, and we've got to do it as soon as we can or else he might just join the gods and then he'll hurt more people everywhere, and not just here. Do you know how we might be able to get to him?"

"But everyone knows where Lord Teljens lives." La'el replied. "He doesn't hide or anything. He lives in the big tower in the middle of the city, where the old leaders of the city used to live. That's where he teaches the soldiers how to be more like him."

"Is there a way we can get to this tower without the soldiers in the city knowing about it?" He asked again.

She didn't hesitate. "The tunnels go everywhere under the city. That's how we get food and stuff. I told you, the guards don't go into the tunnels so it's safe for half-breeds like me. I can show you the tunnels that go under the big tower."

The question kept bugging Travis though, "La'el, why don't the soldiers ever go down into the tunnels?"

"The tunnels scare them." She said.

"Scare them, why?" Travis asked.

"Because of the ghosts." She said.

Ronan then asked, "What ghosts?"

"The ghosts of the people they kill." She responded. "They throw all the bodies and body pieces into the tunnel openings. That's what they did with mother and father. There's a lot of very mad ghosts down here, but don't worry. They won't be mad at you. At least, I don't think they will."

Ronan looked at the girl, who couldn't have been more than ten years old. "Don't the ghosts scare you, La'el?"

"Oh, no." She answered as though it was a silly question. "They're all my friends. Mother and father are ghosts too. Why would they ever hurt me?"

"Well, if the ghosts are your friends, then they're our friends too." Ronan replied glancing at Travis, "Right?" He asked him.

"Sure they are." Travis responded.

They talked some more with La'el, and then shared their field rations with her. Travis in particular gave her several of the energy bars that he had been given. Her thin frame looked like she needed them far more than he did. When she was done eating, she seemed to relax more and more until she leaned over and her eyes closed and she was out.

"Wow." Ronan said in a whisper to Travis as he set up the broken chairs at the table and tested one. The chair could still bear weight. Travis took the other. "What do you make of what she said about these 'ghosts'? Anything in your Jedi training that could give us a little more insight?"

"No one ever said anything about it to me before, but it's not like I've had years at this. Let me see if I can learn anything. Give me a few minutes." He replied.

Travis closed his eyes and lent himself to the Force, expanding his awareness to the tunnels under the city, though he tried to keep himself from stretching his probe up above to where the surface was. He allowed his conscious mind to follow the eddies and currents of the Force as it flowed through the tunnel system.

He could feel the presence of other living beings like La'el in the tunnels, though he couldn't tell if they were all children or not. There weren't many though. If he were to hazard a guess, he might have said twenty, maybe thirty at most.

The Force was _strong_ down in the tunnels. There was a lot of living Force energy in motion throughout the tunnels. There were feelings and emotions carried along those currents, and the impressions of individual persons, though not more than that. It was similar to what he experienced back on the desert world when Master Yoda had him open himself up to the "ghosts" of the ruined village. There was a great deal of anger. La'el was right. It was directed towards the soldiers above. But this anger stretched back many, many years he could feel. It was also a feeling of betrayal.

Much of the anger was concentrated in the center of the city. That was where the Force began to change and feel colder, and darker again. But it was different there as well. It felt like something or someone was tapped into all the anger and fear which had been imprinted on the living energy.

When Travis opened his eyes again, he wasn't sure how much time had passed. But Ronan was still sitting across from him.

"Well?" Ronan asked.

"There's something there." Travis told him. "More like someone. Lots of someones. But they're fuzzy, not coherent really. Kind of like impressions or memories imprinted into the living Force. Funny thing is, you'd really have to be able to use the Force in order to know that they were there. I don't know how much they can really influence the living, but it might be possible."

Travis looked towards the sleeping form of La'el as he said this. A suspicion had already been forming in his mind, one which he didn't quite yet know what, if anything, to do with.

"Do you think they could be a problem for us?" Ronan asked.

"I don't know. There's a lot of anger there, enough for the Force to feel dark, especially towards the center of the city. And another thing too, it feels weird like someone's tapped into it like a siphon or is feeding off of it or something." Travis told him.

Ronan considered that new information. "What do you think that means?" He asked.

Travis thought, trying to remember anything which could be useful about the Sith and how they used the dark side. Then one memory surfaced, and then it was joined by another one. The movies he had been required to watch the year before, way back when they had gotten thrown to the other side of the universe; the mission which had started this whole thing.

"In one of those old _Star Wars_ movies, the main Sith lord, the emperor I think," Travis started to say, trying to reason it out as he talked, "he kept trying to push one of the main characters further and further into using the dark side by making him more and more angry and afraid. When he finally succeeded, it looked like he was using the other guy's anger to feed his own power. I know it was just a movie, but a lot of other stuff from those movies was obviously real, so maybe it could be possible."

"So you think our bad guy is using this pool of angry ghosts down here to power himself up?" Ronan asked, trying to understand what he was saying.

"Maybe. That's all I've got anyways." Travis replied.

"Well, this mission just keeps getting more and more interesting." Ronan remarked.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The team spent the next two days talking with La'el, and learning from her and the other "half-breeds" who made the tunnel system their home. La'el had contacted those she trusted and brought them to meet Travis, Ronan and the two other soldiers with them. The half-human outcasts, both older and younger, were able to answer almost any question the Atlantis men asked about the city and its occupants. Through them they were able to piece together a picture of what had happened on Hebridan.

The picture they put together wasn't a pretty one, and felt all too familiar to all the men who heard it.

This city had been one of the first on the planet to be conquered by the armies of the Ori over a century before, and had been used as a strategic base of operations. There had already been a vocal,though minority racist movement against the non-human Sirrakan population and the half human people that had been the offspring of mixed relationships. When the Sirrakans had been the first to resist the Prior's message of Origin, the racist movement quickly adopted the new religion and a Jihad against all Sirrakans and their children followed and it quickly turned to mass murder and pogroms of genocide.

The Priors and their followers soon began to dismantle the technological society that had existed calling it heresy and the worship of idols and demons. The first thing which had been dismantled and destroyed was the intercommunications network which also had hosted the larger public library database. This was followed by all hard copies of any book other than the one they preached. Then it became illegal to teach or use the written Hebridan language, and the Priors forced everyone to either learn the written language of the book, or not learn how to read at all. Soon, the only book or reading material available to anyone was the Book of Origin, and those caught reading anything else were publicly executed by fire.

Then, within the span of only a few years, without explanation, the Priors turned on their own gods and began preaching against the Ori and the book of Origin. The population that was left went into a civil war, and whatever had been left of the planet's populace was again decimated as those who clung to the new religion for reasons of race or privilege fought hard against those now led by the Priors against them.

The city that had retained control of the stargate had remained a bastion of the religion of Origin up until "Lord Teljens" arrived. He had been the first person to step through the ring in living memory. It wasn't long before the preachers of Origin began to hail him as a long awaited true Prior of the Ori. His first act had been to publicly accuse the city's leaders of a lack of faith and then strangle them… from a ten or fifteen meters away… while they were suspended in mid air a meter off their feet.

They found out the man they were looking for had almost never left the central tower since he arrived on Hebridan almost a month ago. They had also discovered that, according to several of the outcasts, he rarely left his own private chambers which were located somewhere near the highest part of the tower. The soldiers were brought up to meet him when he spent any time instructing them.

As they heard more and more of the outcasts' stories, a plan to reach and end Teljens before the sunset on the third day began to develop.

 _It's a well of souls_. Travis thought, though didn't say. It seemed to be the most appropriate name for the huge dimly lit circular chamber into which the four men and La'el had emerged from the tunnels. In better times, it might have served as a kind of main control junction for vehicles and workers in the subterranean tunnels under the city. But the smell of rotting meat which grew stronger as they approached, and was now almost overpowering, betrayed its current, more grisly function. The air grew steadily warmer and more humid as they approached, even as Travis felt the space grow colder and darker in the Force.

Rage, terror, vengeance, all of these feelings slammed into Travis before he even entered the junction. The very air felt to him like it was charged with dark emotions like in a lightning storm. Then he stepped into the chamber, and it went from a storm to a hurricane of freezing, paralyzing dark side energy. Had it been directed at him or his team, he knew there was nothing he could have done to stop it.

Travis looked into the dimly lit chamber and down to the floor, knowing what he would see, but feeling like he needed to see it anyway. It was worse than his imagination had informed him it would be.

The floor of the chamber was covered with mounds of corpses. Men, women, the very old, and even infants lay strewn in horrific positions. Torn arms, torsos, heads and other "pieces" were scattered among them. All of them were in various stages of decomposition. Tiny worms, and some not so tiny, burrowed in and out of those that still had their flesh. There were flies everywhere, and the buzzing from their wings was almost deafening as it echoed off the walls of the chamber.

Almost immediately, Travis wanted to look away. Every instinct of self preservation told him to run, to flee, to get away from the closest thing to hell he had ever seen or wanted to see. He fought furiously within himself for control, drawing on his own memories of his friends and family to find the strength in the Force to resist giving in to the fear which was pounding him from the dark side.

One of the marines, Dex, began to gag and choke and turned back into the tunnel to vomit back up the rations they had eaten before they set out to reach here. Ronan covered his nose as he looked over the metal railing to the bottom of the chamber and then to the ceiling to get a better idea of their surroundings.

La'el's face was impassive and unaffected as she came out onto the metal grated walkway that ran the circumference of the chamber. Her calloused bare feet couldn't be heard at all. There was nothing surprising in what they saw to this little girl's eyes as she barely seemed to notice it. That fact alone made Travis want to take the girl and flee back through the Stargate to somewhere, anywhere else she might be safe.

His own face impassive, though Travis could see and feel a rage building behind his eyes, Ronan asked the girl, "How do we get into the tower from here, La'el?"

"The door into the tower is around there, on the other side of the pit." She said, pointing to the opposite end of the "pit" as she called it.

"Man." The other marine, Imaghan, exclaimed. "And I thought the Wraith were sick bastards. What kind of a monster could do all this?"

"The kind we put down." Ronan responded, just a trace of anger giving an edge to his voice as he began to move in the direction La'el had indicated. Dex and Imaghan followed after him, as did La'el. But Travis stood where he was, his hands gripping the metal railing.

There were whispers of " _Help us"_ all around him. He didn't hear them as much as he felt them, but they were real all the same. Hundreds of voices crying out to him for justice, for mercy, but especially for release.

 _They're trapped here._ Travis realized. _He's keeping them here somehow. I was right. He's feeding off of the fear and anger from their last moments, drawing energy from it like from a power cell._ It was overwhelming to him and his heart was torn and in intense pain for their plight.

"Travis!" Ronan's voice shouted to him, and he was snapped back into the here and now.

"I will." He whispered back to the voices with resolution, and then shouted back to Ronan, "Yeah, I'm coming."

As they reached the metal door around the chamber, Travis turned to La'el and told her, "Thanks for helping us get here, La'el. We can take it from here."

"Are you going to kill him, Travis? Are you going to kill Lord Teljens?" She asked.

Travis couldn't answer her.

He didn't know why, but the question stung him. He had been assuming that the Sith lord would have to be put to death… by his hand.

 _I am going to kill him. That's what I came here to do, to be his executioner. That's what Master Yoda charged me with._ The thought hit him. He wasn't coming to arrest the man for trial. He wasn't coming to bring him back to a Starfleet court-martial. With the Klingons, with the soldiers at the stargate, their deaths were self-defense. This was very, very different. He was coming with the explicit intention of taking the man's life. And he would have to live with that knowledge both before, and after he did it.

 _What has happened to me?_ He asked himself.

 _But this is what a Jedi does when it's necessary_. The thought came unbidden to his mind. _Judge, jury, and executioner with impunity when the need arises_.

"Yes, La'el. I am going to kill him." Travis answered the little girl without emotion. "It's what has to happen to stop all of this."

"What about the soldiers? And the Origin preachers?" She asked, hope filling her eyes. "Are you going to kill all of them too?"

 _She's right._ Travis thought. _In order to stop all of this for good, they all have to be dealt with. Everyone Teljens has awakened to the dark side of the Force has to be stopped in order to keep it from spreading again._

"I don't know. But we need to stop Teljens first." He finally responded.

Disappointed, she told him, "I suppose so. But if you can, will you?"

"You got a deal." Travis told her. To himself he thought, _How?_

Then, satisfied, La'el left back the way they had came, and Ronan turned the strikingly old fashioned metal doorknob. The door creaked, but swung open easily. Ronan shone a flashlight into the darkened opening and onto a stairwell with metal grated steps which led up in a square corkscrew fashion.

"How far up you think it goes?" The marine Dex asked.

"I don't know. The buildings we saw from outside the city were pretty tall." Ronan answered him. "A technologically advanced building like these used to be probably had some kind of a lift or elevator somewhere like Atlantis's towers do. Whether or not they might still be operating is another question entirely. We'll figure that out when we find one. For now, we climb."

Ronan then started up the stairwell, eyes on everything ahead of him. The intelligence behind his eyes was calculating and devising plans. "Eyes peeled for soldiers." He told the other men.

He and the marines had their plasma rifles in their hands, and wherever their heads or eyes turned, the business end of their rifles followed as they began to ascend the stairwell. Without conscious thought, Travis's lightsaber appeared in his own hand, though remained switched off as he followed behind.

The two armored soldiers patrolling the second floor hallway both began to feel lightheaded and disoriented at the same time. The one nearly lost his balance, but then recovered. And then everything was burning sharp pain in his chest. The next thing he knew he was on the floor next to his comrade, and then he didn't know anything at all.

Ronan fired a third shot from his sidearm at both guards and their bodies disintegrated leaving nothing behind. The scuffed tiled floor was slightly blackened, but unless someone really inspected the burn marks it wouldn't be distinguishable from the rest of the wear and tear.

"Clear." He said out loud to the men behind him.

Imaghan then followed directly behind Ronan trailing a slightly disoriented and clumsy Travis. Dex brought up the rear.

"You okay, buddy?" Ronan asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Travis told him, looking like he was struggling to maintain his composure. "Let's just keep going. The longer we take, the more we lose the element of surprise."

"I'm sorry about this," Ronan told him for the second time, "but it's the only way we're going to move through the building safely until we can find our target." Ronan told him.

"It's okay, I'm getting a little better with it." Travis replied.

"Good. The longer you're exposed to it, the better a chance you have of overcoming it's effects. It just takes time." Ronan said. "Now, let's see what's on this floor."

They had already skulked around the ground floor in the same manner, but there hadn't been much there that might help them reach the higher levels of the tower quickly. After finding a map of the building, they realized it might take days to climb the stairwell to the top. They needed to locate a working lift, but so far, they hadn't found anything. Those lifts or elevators which started on the ground floor had stopped functioning a long time ago.

"You'd think the elevator would be close to the stairs. At least that's usually how most Earth buildings are designed." Travis said, keeping his eyes open for anything that might look like a lift door.

"I don't think they'd be working on this floor either." Dex spoke up. "I mean, they're all tied together right? So if it's not working on the floor below us, why would these be working?"

"Right." Ronan agreed. "So, any other ideas as to how he's getting the new recruits up to where he's at?"

Then an idea hit Travis. It didn't seem likely, but it wasn't impossible was it? At that point, he wished Commander Tucker had been there to tell him why it could or couldn't be possible.

"What about a transporter?" He asked.

"Huh?" Ronan responded, looking around at the ruined hallways and dead overhead lighting. "What do you mean?"

"Just a thought, but maybe he brought some tech from home when he got here. I mean, it looks like the guy planned this out pretty carefully. That kind of equipment isn't exactly travel sized, but the basic components of it could be broken down into something that could fit through the stargate." Travis replied. "Maybe what we should be looking for is a small transporter pad set up somewhere on the lower floors."

Ronan considered this. Then something appeared to come to his mind and he snapped his fingers and said, "Maybe he didn't need to bring one with him. Maybe what we should be looking for is a ring platform. It's a transporter tech the Ancients in the Milky Way used, and was late adopted by most of the other races. Same idea as your transporter, but it requires a set of materialization rings and a pad at both ends. The race that designed our transporter technology originally based their designs on them."

"You think there might be a set here?" Travis asked.

"The Ori brought them with them to the planets they conquered for rapid deployment of their troops from orbiting vessel to planetside." Ronan responded.

"How do you know all this about them, Colonel? I went through Academy too, and I don't remember my prof getting that detailed." Dex asked.

"Yeah well, I did my thesis on the Ori and their invasion of the Milky Way." Ronan responded. "I thought it might impress the professor."

"Did it?" Dex asked.

"No." Ronan replied.

Travis then suggested, "Maybe there's a control down here somewhere to activate it. There's got to be. It's gotta be at least fifty floors to the top of the tower. How else would he get back up to the top?"

"Okay, so then we're looking for some kind of a control panel or pedestal." Ronan said, revising his thinking. "I know we didn't see anything like that on the ground floor, so let's keep our eyes open for one. We'll also want to keep our eyes out for any guards that have a large bracelet on one of their wrists. Some of the ring platforms were operated remotely by an ornate bracelet on a lead soldier."

The four men continued their search of the second floor. By the time they re-entered the stairwell half an hour later, there were no soldiers left. This process of sweeping continued for the next two floors. On the fifth floor, not far from the stairwell, they found themselves in a windowless room. It might have otherwise been a large storage room at one time except for the raised circular platform capable of holding four grown men at once if they stood close together. Nearby there was a coppery, rectangular control panel with blocky characters etched into its face.

"This is it." Ronan said, inspecting it. "I'm pretty sure."

"You know how to work it, sir?" Imaghan asked.

Ronan studied the small, hand sized panel. It was minimalistic, with only a single raised turquoise surface like a button. "I think it's pretty self-explanatory." He then motioned to the other men, "Get on the pad, and leave room for me."

Travis and the two marines did what they were told. Ronan hit the button with his palm and then rushed to join them. Almost as soon as he did, five large metal rings suddenly emerged from the platform and, stacking one on top of the other, surrounded them. Then they immediately vanished from the room in a flash of blue light.

Seconds later the four men found themselves in a similarly windowless room.

"Did it work?" Dex asked.

"You sure we went anywhere?" Imaghan asked. "Doesn't look like anything's changed."

"Only one way to find out." Ronan said, and then stepped off the platform towards the door of the room. "Weapons ready."

Ronan took hold of the doorknob, and the door slowly swung inwards. Plasma rifle in his hands and ready, he took a step out of the room, checking to both the right and left of the doorway before fully emerging. When he was satisfied, he whispered, "clear" to the other men.

They had all emerged into a wide hallway that ran up against glass windows that ran from floor to ceiling. The windows were filthy from years of dust and dirt collecting against them, but were otherwise intact as the sunlight outside shone through them providing a natural lighting to the walkway.

Through the windows could be seen the whole city and the surrounding, ruined urban area. In the far distance could be seen open countryside, and even a wide body of water. Travis looked down through the window and, ironically, found himself far more comfortable as high up in the air as they were than he ever felt on the ground.

"I'd say we've definitely gone somewhere." He remarked.

"Okay, we've made it up here. Now we find our target." Ronan said looking up and down the hallway.

There were only very few doors along the interior wall. The one they had just come out of, one marked as leading to the stairwell, and a set of doors that marked where the elevator had once brought passengers to the upper levels of the tower. At the far end of the hall there stood another, more ornate wooden door with a gilded doorknob and the remains of a plaque of some kind that had long since become unreadable.

"Let's see what's behind door number one, shall we?" Ronan told the other men. Then he asked Travis, "How're you feeling? Still fuzzy?"

"Yeah, but I'm not tripping over my own feet any more so I think I'm getting used to it." He replied.

"Good, then maybe we'll still have the advantage. Okay gentlemen, this is what we came here to do. No hesitation. No arrests. Nothing fancy. This guy's extremely dangerous. Think Wraith queen. You think you have the shot, you take it. Am I understood?" Ronan wanted his orders to be crystal clear to the two marines. He knew Travis didn't need to be told what had to be done.

"Yes, sir." They both responded crisply in unison.

The four men crept slowly down the hall, weapons ready, until they reached the wooden door. Studying it, Ronan saw that the hinges had been placed on the inside. Quietly, he tried the knob again. The door unlatched and swung inwards without a sound.

Without a word, he motioned for the other men to follow him in.

They found themselves in the front open room of a spacious apartment that at one time had been luxurious, Travis was certain. Against the far wall, and up a short flight of steps was another large open window space which opened up out onto the whole city.

Against that window was a human form in a black cloak facing the expansive view of the city. His back was turned.

Without a word, Dex fired his rifle and a plasma bolt struck the man in the back without mercy. He screamed and fell to his knees, then his lifeless corpse fell to its side.

"Well, that was too easy." Ronan remarked. He gestured to Dex to go up and confirm the kill.

The marine move carefully and slowly up the steps to where the man's corpse lay. He knelt down and checked for a pulse, but kept his eyes on the badly burned and cauterized hole that had been blown into the man's chest. He looked up towards Ronan and drew the index finger of his right hand against his throat, and then shook his head.

The next thing Ronan saw was Dex's own head explode. The marine's headless corpse fell next to the man he had just himself killed. After that came the blue shimmer of energy fields surrounding the three remaining men, leaving them just enough room to stand together but no more.

From a side room, another man emerged though his face remained hidden in the shadows of the large black cowl he wore. Ronan fired his own plasma rifle at him but the blast was absorbed effortlessly by the force field around them.

"Please do continue." The newcomer said in a perversely conversational voice. "I would much rather you expend the rest of your weapon's power cells on the force fields before I lower them."

He drew closer to them and stopped in front of Travis as if studying him.

"I know you." He finally said. "Lieutenant Travis Mayweather of the _Enterprise,_ Archer's ship. I expected someone from Starfleet to eventually come looking for me. Archer's crew has been the most resourceful, so I suppose it only makes sense. But you didn't come through the stargate did you? How then did you arrive here in the Gamma Quadrant, well beyond the range of any warp capable ship that we know of?"

He then looked to Ronan and Imaghan and said, "You however are something of a mystery to me, though not as much as you might believe. Congratulations. I'm not a man easily taken by surprise. And to have soldiers from Atlantis… It is Atlantis, yes?"

He directed the question at Colonel Shepherd, who stared at him silently, a range of emotions and thoughts racing behind Shepherd's eyes. He made no effort to draw back the black cowl which hid his eyes.

"Yes, I thought so." He continued. "Oh, don't look so surprised. And yes, if the hangover I'm feeling is any indication, your little disk is doing it's job with me quite well. But I survived in my chosen occupation for decades before I came to learn how to use the Force. I don't need the Force to do my research and make logical deductions. The old Stargate Command database left all the clues I needed to conclude the survival of the old research base and Stargate personnel in the Pegasus galaxy. Though I have to admit, I didn't expect a personal visit from you."

"Lord Teljens, I presume." Travis said. "I guess the other guy was just convenient today."

A smile appeared deep within the recesses of the cowl, just barely visible. "Yes, that is the moniker I am going by here, isn't it? It was a suggestion by the holocron that taught me so much. _Darth Teljens_. I thought it had a nice ring to it, but I opted for 'Lord Teljens' instead among the people. And yes, Overseer Gellans was quite convenient to have up for his lessons today. Pity, he showed real promise. I shall have to find a suitable replacement."

"So, now what? You bore us with your evil plan?" Ronan asked sarcastically.

"I suppose I could." Teljens replied. "We do appear to have some time on our hands until I adapt to your anti-prior device and I can kill you safely without dropping the force shield. But then, I'm interested to know what you think it is. Perhaps we can entertain each other with speculation?"

"I'll pass, thanks." Ronan replied.

Teljens then turned to Travis, "What about you, Lieutenant. Would you care to debate the merits of my 'evil plan'? Perhaps once you hear it, you won't think it's quite so evil. Given the history of your missions with Enterprise, you may even agree with me."

"You murdered innocent people. There's no justification for that." Travis responded.

"And yet, your own captain stranded a ship full of 'innocent people' without a warp coil all so you could use it to accomplish your mission to stop the Xindi weapon from destroying Earth itself." Teljens replied.

"That was different." Travis responded. "Captain Archer still hates himself for it."

"And what if I were to tell you I'm doing all of this to find a way to protect Earth, and even Earth's new coalition allies, not just from a single alien threat, but from all of them." Teljens spoke as he began to slowly walk around the circular blue energy enclosure. His hands were held behind his back as he talked.

He stopped in front of Ronan, but continued to speak. "I have spent almost a lifetime trying to protect our 'democracy' from all threats, extra-terrestrial and terrestrial. But the further we go out into this galaxy, the more threats like the Xindi, like the Klingons, like the Romulans we continue to face. And each time, instead of dealing with the threat as we can, the politicians pull back. The idealists get together and have a pow-wow and everyone sings a feel good song all while my men and I remain in the shadows on the front lines of a war to keep them safe that they know nothing about. I'm sure you can understand exactly what I'm talking about, can't you? If not you, then perhaps your ancestors?"

He addressed this last question to Ronan. The Colonel's face remained impassive, and unreadable. Teljens continued his slow circuit around the men.

"The United States Air Force learned over a century and a half ago of a human race advanced enough to transform themselves into nearly omnipotent beings of pure energy existing on a higher dimensional plane. Did you know one of their own scientists was assisted by one of these 'ascended beings' in himself joining their ranks before he ran afoul of their rules and was cast back down to live among us mortals again? But while he remained ascended, he had access to a nearly limitless knowledge of what was in the mind of every mortal in the galaxy, and nearly limitless power to go with it, hampered only by the rules the other ascended beings imposed on him."

He stopped in front of Travis this time. Turning to face him he continued to speak.

"Unfortunately, being a mere mortal has its drawbacks. I had no ability to pursue this line of thought until my discovery of the Lucas archives, and the very Ancient holocron devices contained within. The Force, as I have learned, is a very, very powerful ally indeed. It didn't take me long to realize the potential of this wonderful new tool I had been gifted with towards realizing my full potential. Natural ascension, however, takes years of meditation under the best of circumstances. Unfortunately, in order to overcome my own physical limitations sooner rather than later, I had to resort to, er, 'harvesting' dark side Force energies to overcome those limitations. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, as the Vulcan philosopher would say."

Travis began to feel a cold darkness radiating from the man as he spoke. It was barely discernible, but with each passing minute as the man talked the feeling grew stronger, slowly but certainly.

"So you just happened to teach your guards how to use the Force in your spare time?" Travis asked, trying to keep him talking.

Teljens paused and stared at him from beneath his cowl. After a minute, he shook his head and began his slow circuit around them again. "Many of the people here still worship the Ori. When I came through the stargate they took me as a prior or a prophet, especially after a few 'demonstrations'. They began to believe in me. Perhaps that doesn't sound like much, but I began to grow stronger in the Force through the power of their belief, much like with another's fear or anger, though much less immediately potent. Teaching those with the 'gift', as it were, accelerated this transfer process and gave me more competent guards. Soon, I intend to draw the rest of Section thirty-one's agents here and train those capable of it as well. With my ascension, Section thirty one will impose an order upon the Milky Way unlike any it has ever seen before."

 _I don't think so._ Travis thought to himself, and he began to push out his awareness through the Force as his mind and instincts began to clear.

Teljens felt like a cold dark void and Travis could sense the tendrils of dark side energies swirling around the man. The man was a cold nexus of dark Force power. Around the room, more dark energy flowed attempting to find purchase with Teljens, but prevented by the neutralizing effect of the anti-prior device. Once he was able to overcome the device, the Sith lord would have access to all of them. Travis would need to get to him before that happened. But how?

Then things moved as if in a blur as the energy force shield dropped, and Travis found himself blown backwards as though he had been hit by a truck. Using the Force he flipped and landed on his feet in a combat stance. His lightsaber appeared in his hand, it's blade humming its deadly song.

Behind him, and against the steps, Dex and Ronan appeared to be unconscious. Their weapons had been flung far from their reach.

"I am impressed." Teljens said, malice dripping from each word. "Once again, you have managed to catch me by surprise. Do be aware that this will be the last time you do… Jedi." Teljens raised his hands up towards Travis. They crackled with a violet and violent charge of energy.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Travis caught the first blast of dark lightning on the shimmering blade of his lightsaber as he shook off the last of the effects from the still active A.P.D. He felt as a blind man who had been given back his sight.

Deflecting the lightning he darted across the room and away from the unconscious men on the floor. He assumed another stance on the opposite side near the opening to another room within the apartment.

"I see you've had more than just Starfleet training, Lieutenant." Teljens said, all pretense of congeniality gone from his voice to be replaced by concern.

Travis didn't answer, but instead called on the living Force around him. Shadow tendrils of fear and anger wrapped themselves around him, threatening to suffocate his mind and emotions with their intensity.

 _No!_ He fought to control his own heart as the dark energy swirling around the room threatened to break him. He thought of his brother, and his mother, and all of his friends and family on the _Horizon_. The letter of recommendation his dad had written to Captain Archer became an anchor of light for him to hold on to. A beacon of light energy formed within him and began to drown the darkness.

His awareness exploded outward as he allowed the Force to overwhelm him, drinking it in like water to a man dying of thirst. He thought of the little girl, La'el and everything she had lost. He thought of his friends and crewmates, and everyone else he cared about. He drew strength from the faith his captain, and even his master Yoda had put in him to accomplish this mission. He allowed his compassion and love for them to become a consuming fire of Force energy within himself.

"The dark side destroys everything and everyone it touches, Teljens!" Travis shouted at him. "You can't protect anyone with it! You've got to know the _Star Wars_ story just as well as I do! And look what happened with the Ancients and the Ori! Look at the devastation their wars wrought to just this world! Think! Is that what you want to happen to Earth?!"

"You don't understand the real power of the Force, do you, Lieutenant?" Teljens said as he attempted another, more ferocious blast of lightning. "The Force is whatever you want it to be. It responds to your own emotions and empowers them in return. The only 'darkness' or 'light' in it comes from the person who wields it."

The lightning struck Travis's lightsaber, and he began to struggle to hold it back. He dug deep again, and the Force flowed around him as the lightning overwhelmed his weapon and enveloped him in it's deadly charge. But instead of striking him, it flowed around his person, redirected to somewhere behind him. Travis then felt an intense heat against his back as a section of wall caught fire, but he himself was unharmed.

"I think I understand it well enough." Travis responded, and then thrust out the heel of his hand driving the Force in front of him and it struck Teljens hard, sending him backwards across the room.

Teljens did a backflip and landed on his feet. His cowl came down and Travis saw his features for the first time. He looked like a middle aged caucasian man with graying hair. Wrinkles lined his face, making him appear much older than Travis thought he should have. But the most distinguishing, and disturbing feature was the man's pale yellow eyes. They were bloodshot, and the irises were lightly highlighted with a thin ring of red.

Then the man pulled a phase pistol from his cloak and fired. But Travis had seen it before it happened, and the beam was caught and deflected by the energy blade in front of him. A sofa nearby caught fire as it couldn't withstand the heat of the blast. Smoke began to fill the room.

"Give this up." Travis told him.

"And just what are you going to do, Lieutenant? Arrest me? Take me back to Starfleet Headquarters for a court-martial?" Teljens laughed at him. "And just how are they going to court-martial a living god?"

The Teljens leaped for him, faster than a human eye could see, but Travis had sensed it through the Force and side stepped. Bringing his lightsaber to bear, the blade made contact with Teljens' head right at the eyes and kept on going.

The Sith Lord fell and didn't rise again, half of his head a meter from the rest of it. "They're not." Travis told the corpse.

The fire spread across the apartment, and the blaze grew hotter and more intense. Travis ran to the two unconscious men and felt them in the Force. They were still alive. Up the steps, there was nothing he could do for Dex.

Then Ronan moaned and stirred.

"Lay easy, Colonel. I've got to get you and him out of here." Travis told him.

"Is he dead?" Ronan asked as he rubbed his head and tried to sit up.

Travis looked back to the corpse on the floor. "Yeah, he's dead." He replied without emotion.

"His body hasn't disappeared? No weird energy beings?" He asked.

"No. I made sure of it." Travis told him. His blade had been aimed for Teljens' head in such a way as to destroy the brain before he could even have the chance to ascend in his final seconds.

Then there was a violent explosion of violet and dark blue energy behind them and the force of it threw Travis forward, and squeezing his eyes shut, he anchored himself in the Force, using it to cause most of the destructive force to flow around himself and his surviving companions.

When he opened his eyes again, most of the apartment had been destroyed. All of the windows looking into the open sky had been shattered and blown outwards. The fire which had been raging was extinguished.

"What the hell was that?!" Ronan shouted, his own ears still deafened from the blast.

Travis had his suspicions, but didn't expound on them. Instead he just replied, "I think La'el's friends are free to go… wherever, now."

Ronan then stood up, but Imaghan was still unconscious. "What about those holocron things?" He asked.

"There's no time, the whole city has to have heard that blast. Soldiers will be up here any minute and we've got to get Imaghan out of here before they are." Travis told him.

Ronan looked at him and said, "We came to finish this Travis, once and for all. Mission's not accomplished until the holocrons are secured one way or the other. I'll get Imaghan out of here. You go destroy those things."

Travis looked pained as he saw his friend still struggling to stand after the hit he had taken, but he knew he was right. "Alright, get going. They've got to be in what's left of this place somewhere. I can't imagine he'd have let them too far out of his reach. I'll be right behind you."

Travis then turned back to the rest of the apartment and surveyed the scene. Above him, he could see a clouded blue sky through the open air of a roof that had been mostly blown off. The twisted skeleton of shredded steel framework, insulation, cabling, and wooden structures were clearly visible through the rupture which the blast had made. Debris and broken pieces of blackened furniture lay strewn everywhere.

 _How am I supposed to find them in this?_ He asked himself. _I don't even know what they look like_.

He reached out once more with the Force, probing the remains of the apartment for anything which might respond.

 _There_. There was a slight twinge, almost imperceptible, but real. It came from what might have been the wreckage of a bedroom or even a study. Travis stepped over a mangled reclining chair that might have been an expensive antique once upon a time and entered the smaller room.

The interior walls looked to have taken most of the blast. There were no furnishings in this room to speak of except a woven mat or rug on the floor. Previously lit candles sat cold on the floor at the far end. In front of the candles sat a black metal box.

Travis went and knelt down next to the box and opened it. Inside were three geometric solids, a pyramid, a cube, and a multi-sided shape. The pyramid glowed with a red light, and felt malevolent, hateful even towards him as he passed his hand over the shapes. The cube felt warm and inviting, like an old friend that had been expecting his return. His hand lingered over that cube for just a minute, and a female voice which felt familiar began to speak in his mind.

 _This is all the recorded knowledge of Jedi Grand Master Jaina Solo. Welcome Jedi._ The voice told him. _What would you like to know_? The voice of the long dead Jedi Master he had briefly met in a galaxy far, far away asked him.

 _I could learn more from this._ Travis thought to himself. _As a Jedi Master I could protect Earth and those I care about and teach others to do the same._

"How do I best protect everyone from the dark side?" He asked aloud.

The cube glowed with a blue light traced in patterns around its surface, and Travis could feel it responding to the Force around him.

She replied, _By letting the mistakes of the past die with the past._

He understood.

He thumbed the switch to his lightsaber once more, and stabbed down into the box three times. When he was done, the melted slag had no more wisdom or teaching, either light or dark, to offer anyone ever again.

Sensing danger once more, he left the room and returned towards where he had left Ronan and Imaghan, seeing that they weren't there he ran for the now splintered doorway they had come through and into the hall, now covered in shattered glass.

He ran down the hallway to the ring transporter room they had emerged from. There he found Ronan and Imaghan slumped on the floor surrounded by the dark, medievally armored soldiers. Their staff weapons pointed directly at them.

"Stop!" One of the soldiers yelled at him. "Or these two die!"

Before Travis could respond, both Ronan and Imaghan's unconscious forms disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"You were saying?" Travis quipped, his lightsaber lit and in hand.

Then Travis felt a familiar dizzyness, and momentary blackout.

And then the next thing he knew he was standing on the bridge of the _Enterprise_. His _Enterprise._ Captain Archer stood in front of his chair. Malcolm and T'Pol stood at their respective stations to the rear. As he looked around the bridge, everything was as it should be. It felt surreal.

"Captain?" Travis asked, not sure whether or not to believe his own eyes.

"Welcome home, Travis." Captain Archer said with a smile.

It was the sweetest three words Travis had heard in a long, long time.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The spartan metallic walls of the _Landry's_ briefing room began to feel cramped and claustrophobic after the two hours of debriefing the Atlantis warship commanders insisted on having with him. As a courtesy to Travis and his own commanding officer, they requested Captain Archer to sit in as well, but there was no doubt as to who they felt was in charge.

Travis hadn't even had the chance to rest or get a hot meal before his presence had been requested at the prearranged joint debriefing, and the exhaustion he felt after the last two days was beginning to take its toll.

It certainly wasn't the first time Travis had been debriefed after a mission, and just as certainly wouldn't be the last. But it was the longest and most tedious interview he'd ever had. Every detail of every minute of their encounter down on the planet had to be gone over in painstaking detail. And just to be certain, Colonel Hawthorne made sure to make audio recordings of all of Travis' testimony.

"And you're absolutely certain these holocron devices were destroyed? There's no possible way they could be repaired and reused?" Hawthorne questioned him again, for the third time.

"As I said," Travis answered, though his patience was wearing extremely thin, "I stabbed each one individually with the lightsaber. When I checked each one, there was nothing left that I could see but blobs of liquified metal that had solidified. I can't see any possible way someone could reconstruct the devices or the information they had contained from what was left. If there was, it would be a level of technology that would be so far beyond you or I it might as well be magic."

Captain Archer mostly remained silent at the questions being asked as he put together a picture in his own head of what his officer had accomplished. He had sat through more than his fair share of tough debriefings, especially after the Xindi mission, and knew this was just part of the job.

"About how many of these Sith trained soldiers would you estimate are still on the planet's surface?" Colonel Ellis asked.

"I don't know. We saw a lot of soldiers both in the building, and patrolling the city streets. I got the impression of the dark side from most of them, but not all the soldiers had been trained in that way. And it wasn't just soldiers. I saw evidence of religious and civic leaders being trained by Teljens as well. I don't think I can give you any kind of an accurate number though." Travis responded honestly.

"How about an estimate?" Ellis asked.

"It's a pretty big city down there, but it's also mostly empty in comparison to its size. We took out a lot of them, maybe upwards of fifty or sixty. But most of those were in the building. If I was to estimate how many were left based on the size of the population, I'd guess no more than a hundred, a hundred and fifty maybe?" Travis told them.

"So there are potentially a hundred and fifty of these Sith lords with potentially the same capabilities as the one you killed, and with the potential to pass that knowledge on to others, is that what you're saying, Lieutenant?" Ellis pressed him.

The same thought had been weighing on Travis heavily for two days. "Yes, sir." He responded.

"Is there any way to detect these people other than through your own special abilities?" Hawthorne asked.

"Not that I'm aware of sir. There might have been six and a half million years ago in Master Yoda's time, but not now." Travis responded.

Ellis looked to Hawthorne, his expression unreadable, though through the Force, Travis knew his mind was working quickly. There was a distinct feeling of fear, as well as determination behind the man's eyes. From Colonel Hawthorne, Travis felt some moral struggle within him as if he was wrestling with a difficult decision. _But what decision?_ Travis couldn't say.

"One last question, Lieutenant, and then we'll let you get some rest." Hawthorn told him.

Travis nodded wearily.

"Are you absolutely certain that these people have no capability for spaceflight. They cannot leave their world at all without the stargate? Is that correct?" He asked him.

"Yes, sir. To the best of my knowledge, what previous technology they possessed in that capability no longer exists or is no longer functional. And from what La'el told us, Teljens was the first and only person to come through or use the Stargate in any fashion in living memory." Travis answered.

Hawthorne nodded, apparently satisfied. He then looked to Ellis and Captain Archer who sat in line from him across the table opposite Travis. They all nodded their heads, satisfied with the Lieutenant's answers.

The ship's commanders stood up and motioned for Travis to do the same. Ellis and Hawthorne then both shook his hand saying, "Thank you for your testimony today, Lieutenant Mayweather. It's going to help us make some difficult decisions in the next day or so."

"If I may ask, what do you mean, sir?" Travis asked, a cold feeling running down his spine.

"That's for your captain and us to discuss, Lieutenant. Thank you again. Captain Archer will lead you back to your ship." Ellis told him crisply, and Travis knew he wasn't going to be given any more information, at least not from the Atlantis commanders. He was just a helmsman once more.

Captain Archer led Travis back to the airlock where _Enterprise_ had remained docked with the _Landry._ It was two decks down, and a decent walk from the briefing room. Neither said a word.

After they passed through the airlock into _Enterprise's_ own familiar corridors, Travis asked, "Sir, what are we going to do about the remaining dark side users on the planet. Their people figured out how to use the stargate before. Using the Force, it may not take them long to figure out how to do it again. And then this galaxy will be facing a bigger threat. I know Master Yoda told me to end it here and now. He said the Jedi have to die with me, but how is that possible when they're still down there? It may take years, or even centuries, but eventually they're going to force the conflict again. How can I let the Jedi die with me when their order may be needed to combat the future threat?"

"Hawthorne used his own transporter to relocate the Hebridan stargate into his cargo hold less than thirty minutes after we arrived in orbit, Lieutenant." Archer responded. "No one is either coming to or going from Hebridan using the stargate. They're trapped there."

"For now." Travis said, still not fully convinced.

"For now." Archer agreed.

It was early morning before dawn when the blue chevrons of the stargate in Atlantis's gateroom high atop the central tower began to light up, as did the constellation symbols across its face, and a swirling vortext of energy whooshed out, and then just as suddenly collapsed into a pool of energy that appeared as a bright glowing puddle of water across the circle of the ring.

Immediately an energy shield went up across it. The control room received a transmission through the open wormhole, and a call was made.

The recipient of that call responded by coming to the gateroom herself dressed only in a night gown, robe, and slippers. This was a call she had been expecting for nearly a month. It was too important, and too sensitive to take anywhere else but there. It took her less than ten minutes from bed to control tower.

Governor O'Neill listened to the mission report of her ship commanders with rapt attention for nearly twenty minutes. She knew they only had less than forty minutes until the wormhole closed, and that it could be an intense power drain to keep it open artificially any longer than that at that distance, even for the _Landry's_ zero point energy modules. Hawthorne and Ellis tried to be both brief but thorough in their report, barely mentioning the routing of the alien attack on Earth's solar system, and focusing solely on the mission Colonel Shepherd and his team, including the Earth officer, had completed. They concluded by offering their own recommendations as to how to resolve what problem was left.

And now she was left with a difficult choice. And it was hers alone to make. Her commanders wouldn't act without her authorization.

"How many people are on the planet?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

"Our sensors indicate some ten million inhabitants scattered throughout the planet, mostly human." Hawthorne reported.

"Our sensors concur, Madame Governor." Ellis agreed.

 _Damn_. She thought, but kept to herself. _So many._

"And how many just in the city in question?" She asked.

"Our sensors indicate an area population of just under fifty thousand humans. We've also picked up a minuscule population of alien lifeforms we believe to be the Sirrakan population described by the girl, who was herself also a member. That total number of persons with this DNA signature comes out to about eighty three persons in the area of the city, most of them in the subterranean section described by Colonel Shepherd." Hawthorne reported.

"We concur with this assessment." Ellis reported as well.

 _Fifty thousand people. Fifty thousand mothers, fathers, children… All because of a hundred and fifty men. This shouldn't be my decision._ The Governor struggled with herself. _But can we allow any possibility of another Ori war? What would the cost in lives be then? Millions? Billions? So this is what it comes down to. How much blood do I want on my hands? But perhaps we can save some…_

She made her decision.

"You are authorized for a limited area strike, Colonels. Ensure that the atmosphere and environmental area outside the strike zone remains intact. You are also authorized to remove any persons who assisted with the success of the mission from the area." She told them. "Bring them here if you have to."

"Madame Governor, are you certain about this? If there's even one of these Sith that is outside of the bombardment area..." Ellis began to say.

"I've made my decision, Colonel." She said sharply. "And you have your orders."

"Yes, Ma'am." Ellis responded, chastised.

"A bad decision this is." The Ancient One said to himself as he listened to the conversation. "Need for this slaughter there is not."

While the governor's mind was far out of his reach for the moment, the minds and thoughts of the two Atlantis Colonels were an open book to the ascended being. He did not like what he saw.

"Fear this action drives." He said. "The dark side this will empower. Worse for everyone will this make it."

"It is their decision, Ancient One. We cannot stop them from exercising their free will." Uria appeared, the feeling from her radiated concern.

"No. Keep their free will they must. Right you are, Uria." Yoda replied. "But do nothing, I will not."

"You intend to interfere again, Ancient One?" She questioned.

"One last time." Yoda responded. "To ensure that the last time it may be."

"How can you ensure they won't try again without violating our own laws?" Uria asked.

"Made for protecting life laws were, not for allowing it to be taken." The Ancient One told her. "When their job they do not, set aside they must be."

"You intend to reveal our existence to the mortals?" Uria asked, genuinely shocked.

"Our existence these mortals already know." Yoda responded. "Not new information it will be."

"The Others may cast you out for this, Ancient One." Uria warned him. "They will not allow your return."

Had Yoda himself been mortal, he would have been staring directly into her eyes as he replied with a deadly seriousness, "Tired I am of such empty threats. Try let them. If succeed they do, worth it such punishment is."

Uria made no answer. She was speechless at his reply.

Archer had resumed his chair on the bridge of the _Enterprise_. The forward viewscreen held a true color sensor image of the planet below. It was filled with abandoned cities which had once rivaled Earth's own advanced civilization, as well as animal drawn carts and wind powered sailing vessels that ran the coastline of its oceans.

"Captain, sensors are indicating a massive storm beginning to build over the city." T'Pol reported.

"Are we now reporting the local weather, Commander?" Archer asked, not understanding the relevance. Storms were a natural weather phenomenon on any planet.

"Captain, this storm appears to be highly electrically charged and will reach hurricane strength in less than five minutes. There were no indications of inclement weather just five minutes prior to my 'weather report'." T'Pol reported.

"On screen." Archer ordered as he watched the scene change to a swirling pattern of dark clouds gathering at an incredible rate of speed over the city where his helmsman had just been located. Even from that distance, enormous flashes of blue and white lightning could be seen playing across its surface. It was like no storm or weather pattern Archer had ever seen before. And it was poised to strike at the heart of the city.

"What is that?" He asked, stunned at what he saw. "It looks like the wrath of an angry god."

"Is the last transport complete?" Hawthorne asked his operations officer. "How many Sirrakans do we have."

"All eighty three alien life signs accounted for, sir, split between the _Landry_ and the _Enterprise…_ uh, our _Enterprise,_ sir. They are all receiving emergency provisions and ship's services now." His ops officer replied.

 _At least we could save these few_. Hawthorne thought to himself. And then silently prayed, _If there's any Ancients left out there, please, keep me from having to do this now._ Out loud, he started to say, "Arm dro..."

He was interrupted in the middle of the order.

"Sir, I'm picking up a massive weather disturbance over the city. It just appeared out of nowhere." His ops officer reported. "It's interfering with our sensor readings of the area somehow."

"Can we get a target lock on the city?" Hawthorne asked, hoping he knew then what the answer would be.

"No, sir. We can't get any kind of sensor lock whatsoever." His ops officer said in frustration. "There's too much electrical interference. I don't understand it, sir. It wasn't there five minutes ago. It just appeared out of nowhere."

Silently, and with misty eyes Hawthorne sent a thought to whatever deity had heard his prayer, _Thank you._

"Are you alright, sir?" His ops officer asked him.

"What? Why would you ask that?" Hawthorne asked gruffly. "Eyes on your display, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir." The ops officer responded, his eyes fixed to his computer readouts.

That night, La'el's former home had experienced the most devastating electrical storm the planet had ever known. Lightning struck again, and again, and again as thunder boomed like cannon fire across the region leaving the residents shaking. Buildings were set ablaze, scorch marks covered the streets, and what little electrical power was generated for the operation of street lamps and other rudimentary devices was interrupted as the city grew dark. Lit only by the constant strikes of lightning like no one had ever seen before, or would again.

It was dawn by the time the storm moved on. As people came out of their homes, and many the rank tunnels under the city where they had taken refuge, they surveyed the damage. Eventually they came upon ghastly discovery after ghastly discovery as body after body of religious leaders and soldiers were found burned so badly they were almost unrecognizable.

After the city had been thoroughly searched and inspected, it was found that two hundred and sixty three people had lost their lives to the lightning that night. All of them were adult men. All of them had been known to be devoted to the religious service of the Ori. And all of them had been loyal to Lord Teljens who was never seen again.

And a few noticed that no one saw any sign of the half-breeds. Not in the tunnels where many of the people took refuge. And not even their corpses. Some even suggested that they had been rescued by the gods from the judgment which had been rendered. Once this became known, many people in that city took it as a sign from the divine, and many began to search their divine book for answers and many more began to openly question how they had interpreted the word of their gods, especially where it came to the half-breeds and outcasts.

The weapons on board the _Landry_ refused to come online, even after the electrical storm had passed. The same was true of the _Enterprise's_ systems as well. Hawthorne and Ellis ran check after check through the systems, but their engineers and technicians could find nothing.

Hawthorne sat in his own office adjacent to his own bridge going over report after report of frustrated engineers declaring that nothing was wrong with the systems. They just refused to work.

And Hawthorne smiled at the reports as he sipped his morning coffee from his stainless steel mug. Sooner or later he would have to report mission failure to Governor O'Neill, but he wanted to wait as long as he could.

"Your weapons, you need them here no longer." A gravelly, elder voice told him. "Dead they are, all those who were a threat."

Hawthorne looked up from his desk, but saw no one. He then stood up and looked down.

There below the line of his desk stood a tiny, radiant being filled with light. His elfin, alien appearance did nothing to restrain the reverence and awe that filled the hardened warship commander. Immediately, from the histories and legends of his own people he recognized when he was in the presence of an Ancient.

Out of respect he bowed his head and crossed his arms over his chest, and said, "Ancestor. I am honored."

"A good man you are, Colonel Hawthorne. Stained with the blood of innocents your hands need not be. Tell Colonel Ellis you must. Disarm. Go home. Done your work in this galaxy is."

"Yes, Ancestor." Hawthorne replied solemnly, obediently. "I will tell him and Governor O'Neill."

"Ensure the Earth ship returns safely to their people you must." The Ancient instructed. "Without interference their own future for themselves they must write. And also the Sirrakans. Abuse them do not. A new beginning that they might have."

"Of course, Ancestor. It will be done. You have my word." Hawthorne told him. He had never meant anything so seriously in all of his life.

The ancient alien being nodded his satisfaction, and then vanished.

Hawthorne brought his hands to his face and rubbed it as if to see if he were actually awake. It was only then he realized the two matching wet streaks down and across his cheeks. Stunned at what had just occurred, he almost fell back into his chair.

Then, remembering his promise, he immediately had his communications officer contact Colonel Ellis on the Atlantis Warship _Enterprise._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Captain's Log: August 2nd, 2159

 _This will be my first log entry in the last eight days, the events of which I am not sure as to how to describe, or how much will eventually be deemed classified. For the past week we have been working in concert with starships from a technologically advanced lost Earth colony in the Pegasus galaxy appropriately called "Atlantis." It was through their assistance that we were able to repel an attack by an overwhelming force of Klingon warships. After that, the_ Enterprise _was towed by them across half the galaxy to the Gamma Quadrant where we assisted in picking up Lieutenant Mayweather and what remained of an Atlantis special operations team from a successful mission which required the Lieutenant's special training in the Jedi religion and martial arts._

 _Upon our return to Earth's solar system, I was informed through the ship's commander of the_ General Landry _that the Atlantis government has requested that they not establish, or in this case re-establish formal relations with Earth. They gave no explanation as to why._

 _Lieutenant Mayweather had requested to cancel the indefinite leave which had been granted to him, and to return to active duty upon his return to the ship three days ago. I questioned the timing. I believed it to be too soon after all of the potentially traumatic events which had occurred to him over this past month and a half. Dr. Phlox agreed with me. Travis insisted that he was fine and fit for duty at the helm. We came to an agreement that he take the three days of transit through hyperspace and one extra upon our return, and see Dr. Phlox for regular counseling during that time before he returns to duty at the ship's helm. So far, so good. Phlox tells me he is making excellent progress. He has one more day, but I don't anticipate any residual issues which would affect the performance of his duties._

 _We have resumed our previous position in orbit around Neptune, and are awaiting contact from Starfleet. To be honest, I feel at a loss as to how to fully explain all this to Admiral Gardner, or even if I should._

The _Landry_ and the other _Enterprise_ had only departed less than two hours ago, and Archer felt like he was still trying to process everything that had happened over the last six weeks—no it had been longer even than that. It had been a roller coaster ever since he had received their orders to investigate the derelict ship.

 _We still don't know how a six and a half million year old Imperial Star Destroyer_ _got there. I wonder if we ever will._ Archer mused to himself. _We'll add it to the list of unanswered questions, like what that mysterious storm was and where it came from, and why Hawthorne and Ellis had after it been satisfied to keep their stargate and not pursue the possible Force users. From their questioning, I had gotten the distinct impression they were going to bombard the planet to deal with them._

"Sir, I'm receiving a message from Starfleet. Admiral Gardner is on a secure channel. He wishes to speak with you immediately." Hoshi reported to Captain Archer.

Archer had been expecting the call upon their return from piggybacking through hyperspace with the _Landry_. He had spent the last three days considering what he was going to tell his superior to explain their absence, which had to have gone noticed. The Admiral wasn't a bad man by any stretch, and truly it wasn't he that Archer was concerned about. It was everyone else that might be privy to the data _Enterprise_ had collected. What would Starfleet Intelligence do with it? And who was ultimately controlling them?

"I'll take it in my ready room." Archer told her. He stood up from his chair, straightened his uniform, took a deep breath and let it out, and then made his way to the cramped office adjacent to the bridge.

With the door slid closed behind him, Archer went to his desk, sat down and flipped on the display. The bearded face of Admiral Gardner greeted him.

"Captain Archer! Finally! we've been able to get through to you. You've been out of communication for over a week. You dropped off sensors completely. No one could find you or get a hold of you after the Klingon forces mysteriously turned back near your position. We waited for you to report, and you never did. What happened?" Gardner asked, real concern etched on his face.

Archer paused and took another deep breath, letting it out slowly as he put together his thoughts. _I would have trusted Admiral Forrest. I didn't always agree with him, but I trusted him._ He reminded himself. _I've known Gardner for just as long. There has to be trust at some point in time._ Enterprise _can't fix this all on our own._

He then asked, "Admiral, is this channel completely secure? There's no possibility S.I. or any other agency could be listening in on it?"

The Admiral's face changed to a grave seriousness and he looked down at something off screen, manipulating something with his fingers. "Go ahead, Jon. We're completely off the books now. It's just you and I. What's wrong?"

"Admiral, have you ever heard of Section Thirty One? And have you ever heard of a secret facility for S.I. under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado?" Archer began, and then he debriefed his superior on everything which had happened over the last six weeks.

The Admiral's expression went from grave seriousness to an intensity of concern that Archer had rarely ever seen in the man as Archer reached the conclusion of his report. There was a long pause as the man considered the captain's words. Finally he cleared his throat and responded.

"I understand why you didn't say anything about it before, Jon, but I wish you would have trusted me enough to bring me into the loop sooner. Hell, we were all test pilots together, Jon." Gardner sighed. "I knew almost as little about the finds under Cheyenne Mountain as you did when I authorized the hyperspace trials on _Enterprise_ over a year ago, and I'm supposed to be the one in charge, even of S.I. But there's a lot the President of United Earth doesn't share with me. The orders for that experiment, as well as the inspection of the derelict ship in Klingon space came from his office, not mine. I just passed them along. I'm being completely honest with you now when I say I didn't know anything about S.I. or any branch of it restoring a pre-war United States installation in Colorado, much less the finding of this 'stargate'."

Gardner's expression became pained as he continued. "As for the rest of it, all I can say is I'm relieved you and your people were able to stop this rogue agent before he could complete his plans. Destroying the data devices that started it was a good call on the part of your Lieutenant. The possibility of someone like that operating here and now, especially with the Federation talks still going on… I don't want to think about it. I wish I could give you the name of the officer that went rogue, but I don't know it. I've heard the name 'Wilson' connected with some S.I. black ops before, but nothing more than that. At least now we know why twenty of Starfleet's best and brightest suddenly disappeared without a trace over a month ago. I'll make sure their families are notified."

"Thank you, sir." Archer said. "I'm sorry for not reporting all this sooner..."

Gardner put up his hand to stop him. "Don't. In your position, I would have done the same. I'll do what I can on my end to smooth over your disappearing act, but we're both going to have to be careful on this Jon. If I'm right, then the people pulling the strings on this are a lot more powerful than either one of us, and they're not going to want the information on the stargate system getting out to Earth's public, much less to our own Coalition allies. I can make some discreet inquiries into Cheyenne Mountain, but I'm still learning that my influence only goes so far where S.I. is concerned. Regarding your helmsman, it sounds like he's chosen to keep himself quiet and return to duty like nothing's happened. Good. See that he does. As long as all of it regarding the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force remains classical science fiction, no one will raise an eyebrow."

Archer nodded his agreement. He had been thinking the same thing.

Gardner continued. "For now make back-ups of your sensor logs, reports, ship's logs, and anything else pertaining to the last six weeks and store them securely on board until we can figure out something better, and then erase the originals from _Enterprise's_ data storage before you send in your next data transfer. We'll call it a malfunction of some sort if we have to. Make sure your people say nothing about what they know to anyone. With some luck, we can avoid drawing the wrong attention to you and your crew."

"And if Section Thirty One does return to Cheyenne Mountain?" Archer asked.

"If they do, then quite frankly there's very little either of us can do except hope they keep to their original mission of protecting and preserving Earth. So far, with this one exception and that due to extraordinary extenuating circumstances, they have. Fortunately, it seems those extenuating circumstances have been permanently dealt with."

Archer bit his tongue, keeping his own bad feelings about allowing the rogue agency run free in check, and said nothing in response except, "Yes, sir."

After all, he was just the captain of a starship. There was only so much he could do.

Travis sat at the table in the mess hall eating chef's version of lasagna for lunch. The normally star filled windows were dominated by Neptune's massive blue disk. Once more he wore the blue Starfleet coveralls with the NX-01 insignia displayed proudly. With the exception of the long thin rod in his thigh pocket, it almost felt like his recent experiences as a Jedi could finally be considered over.

He had just come from a morning session with Dr. Phlox. According to Phlox it was going well. One more day, and then he would be allowed to return to where he most wanted to be and it would be like nothing had ever happened...

Except it had. And as much as he wanted to just forget everything and let that part of him, that _Jedi_ part of him, go, he found himself unable to part with it fully. Thing is, he didn't know why. Way back in the Jedi temple, an eternity ago in a far flung galaxy, he had protested to Grand Master Jaina that he was just a pilot. That's how he had always seen himself. He was a good pilot. Everyone had always said so. That's all he ever wanted to be before.

He never wanted to make life and death decisions for anyone, much less ones that could affect a whole planet, or even a whole galaxy. But over the last six weeks, that was exactly what he had been forced to do.

 _This is what we do_. The words went through his mind for the hundredth time. _But it's not what I want to do._

And then there was the constant presence of the Force. He felt the living energy calling to him from every person, everywhere he went. It called to him and it felt _right_. He continued to feel a belonging and a peace through the Force that hadn't been there before.

 _How do I just let that go?_

"Is this seat taken, Lieutenant?" Another uniformed crew member asked.

Travis looked up to see a crew member with sandy blond hair and the look of a scholar about him. There was something very, very familiar about him.

"No, go ahead. Maybe I could use the company." Travis told him. "The lasagna's not bad today. Chef did pretty well with it."

"It smells great." The man said as he placed his tray on the table and sat down. "I haven't had a good lasagna in forever."

"You look really familiar, but I don't recall seeing you on board recently." Travis said.

"Oh, we've met before, but I think it has been a long time. My name's Daniel." He told him.

Travis snapped his fingers, "That's right. San Francisco. You stopped by to talk then too. I didn't realize you were in Starfleet. So, you've been assigned to _Enterprise_?"

"You could say that. For now at least." Daniel replied. "It's been an eventful few weeks to say the least. It must feel good to get back to a normal routine again."

"Yeah, I suppose it does." Travis replied.

Daniel took a bite of his lasagna and chewed slowly, letting the taste of the cheese and sauce mix in his mouth. "Mmm." He said as he swallowed. "Chef outdid himself. This is the best lasagna I've had in a long time."

"Yeah, I thought so too." Travis remarked with a smile.

"Hey, hope you don't mind if I ask, but weren't you training with some kind of special instructor recently? He used to come into the mess hall a lot didn't he? I haven't seen him around lately, did he disembark somewhere?" Daniel asked.

Travis's expression turned a little sadder, "No. He, uh, he passed away a month ago. I guess it wasn't made public knowledge to the rest of the crew."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Daniel said as he took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. "He seemed nice. He always had some bit of wisdom to impart when I saw him."

"Yeah." Travis agreed. "I kind of wish he was here now. I feel like I could use some of that wisdom."

"Well, I don't know what kind of issue you're facing, but what do you think he'd tell you if he were here?" Daniel asked him.

Travis looked away to the Neptune dominated window.

"Something tells me you already know the answer." Daniel said.

"Have you ever been a religious man?" Travis asked.

"I've always tried to keep an open mind." Daniel replied.

"I feel like I've come the closest to God or something like God that I've ever been in my life. I love being just a pilot. But I'm afraid that somehow I'll lose that connection if I do what he wanted me to do and go back to just being a pilot." Travis confessed to him. "It's like I feel as if I'm going to lose a fundamental part of who I've become."

"But isn't God supposed to always be there? I mean, I'm no priest, but if whatever it is you're talking about can just vanish because you change jobs… It just seems to me that the divine is more permanent than that. Isn't the divine supposed to always be with you?" Daniel replied.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Travis said, taking another bite of his own lasagna.

"It's kind of like that old movie, 'Star Something Or Other'. I don't know I get all of those mixed up, but I remember one of the characters saying, 'the Force will be with you always.'" Daniel told him.

Travis paused and put down his fork, "What did you say?"

"The Force will be with you, always." Daniel said again. "No matter what you choose to do in life. It will be there to guide you and work with you whether you've got a lightsaber in hand or you're flying a starship. At least that's what I got out of that movie series." He then then focused on finishing his lunch, which he appeared to do with gusto.

Travis stared at Daniel suspiciously. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

After another few minutes, Daniel looked at the watch on his wrist. "Well, I've got to get back to work. It was good seeing you again."

"Yeah, thanks for the conversation, Daniel." Travis said. "Don't be a stranger."

"Hope not." Daniel replied, and then went to dispose of his tray leaving Travis to his thoughts.

The halls of the newly refurbished facility deep under Cheyenne Mountain were quiet. The overhead lighting had been left on, though no one had needed it. Computer displays and control panels showed readouts and sensor information which no one had looked at in over a month. The stale smell of death and charred flesh still hung in the air. It might as well have been a tomb.

Then the space in in the gateroom front of the stargate shimmered and glowed with a bluish white light. Within seconds four men in black versions of Starfleet's uniform coveralls materialized as if out of thin air. They immediately stepped out of the way, and fifteen seconds later, another four men materialized. This process continued until there were twenty uniformed men standing in front of the Ancient metal ring.

A single man stepped out and away from them and looked around to get his bearings. He appeared to be in his thirties with dark hair and a goatee with a splash of gray. His eyes scanned the whole room, and then he brought them down to a tablet which he manipulated to bring up a schematic of the facility and a message bearing the seal of the United Earth President.

Satisfied with what he saw, he nodded to the other men in the group and said, "Alright men, it's confirmed. Stargate Command is completely off the books now and is ready for our use. Let's get this place cleaned up and open for business."

The End

(If you want to see what finally happens to the SGC, read my fanfiction novel, "The Legend of Zelda: Path of Ascension" which is the final chapter tying together all of my Stargate based Fanfiction)


End file.
